
Glass. 



Book 



i 



THE 



ORATION AND POEM 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



'^ 



"Cljc Sons 0f |i|ak IshmT 

IjST NK^V YORIv, 

ON THEIR FIRST ANNIVERSARY, 
May 39th, 1863. 



/ 



t~*' 



A^N ORATIO]S" 



ANNALS OF MODE ISLAND 



PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, 



REV. FRANCIS VINTON, D. D., 



A rhyjvie: 



RHODE ISLAND AND THE TIMES, 



GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, Esq., 



DELIVERED BEFOIiE 



THE SONS OF RHODE ISLAND IX NEW YORK, 

May 29, 1863. 




NEW YORK: 
PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION, 

BY C. A. ALVORD. 

1863. 



t']6 
,S6 9 



At a Meeting of the Executiv-e Committee of the Sons of Rhode Island, held 
pursuant to the call of the President and Yice-Presidont, at the Directort^' Room 
of the American I'lxchange Bank (in the C-ity of New York), on "Wednesday tlie 
third day of June, 18(;:!, Mr. Engs offered the following Resolution: 

Resolved, tliat the thanks of this Committee be presented to the Rev. Dr. A'lX- 
TON for the elo(iuent (Jratiou, and to George William Curtis, Esq., for the excel- 
lent Poem delivered by them resjjectivel}', on the occasion of the Anniversary of 
this Association, and that they be solicited to furnish copies of the same to this 
Committee for publication. 

The question having been put by the Recording Secretary, at the request of the 
President, the same was unanimously adopted. 

The President responded to the vote of thanks in a few well-cheisen and inter- 
esting remarks, and gave his consent to the rf<]uest of the (Committee with the 
j)roviso that he should retain the Oration for the present. 

The Corresponding Secretary also courteously acknowledged tlie request of the 
Committee ; but hesitated in granting it, on account of what he was pleased to call 
the transitory nature of his Poem, and because he had written it hastily, for u 
particular occasion, and with no reference to its permanent preservation. 

It having been suggested, that this might 1>e explained in a note, Mr. Curtis 
kindly consented to the request of tlie Conunittee. 

Upcn motion of Mr. Engs, 

Resolved, that the Committee of Arrangements for the Anniversary Celebra- 
tion, have charge of the })ublication of the Oration and Poem, with power. 

"William J. Hoppin', Recording Secretary. 
[Extract from the Minutes.] 



It being desirable that Rhode Islanders, and the descendants of Rhode 
Islanders, residing in New York and its vicinity, shonld be associated for 
the cultivation of social intercourse, the promotion of mutual good-will and 
fellowship, the enlargement of their acquaintance with and knowledge of 
each other, and for the exercise of beneficence towards needy Rhode 
Islandei-s, it is agreed that : 

1. The name of the Association shall be "The Sons of Rhode Island." 

2. The officers of the Assot-iation shall be an Executive Committee of 
thirteen; the officers of which — namely, the President, the Vice-President, 
the Treasurer, and the Secretaries — shall be elected annually by the Com- 
mittee, and shall hold the same ofiices in the Association. The Executive 
Committee shall have ]>ower to make By-laws for their government and 
that of the Association. 

3. The election of the Executive Committee shall be lield on tlie day of 
the Annual Meeting, namely, the twenty-ninth day of May, in each year — 
that being the Anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States by the State of Rhode Island ; and, in the event of such day 
being Sunday, the election shall be held on the succeeding business day. 
Vacancies occurring during the current year, may be filled by the Com- 
mittee. 

4. Any person who shall have been a Citizen of Rhode Island, or who is 
the descendant of a Citizen, may become a Member of this Association, on 
application to the Executive Committee and assenting to, and subscribing 
these articles ; paying to the Treasurer an Initiation Fee of Three Dollars 
and such Annual Dues tliereafter, not exceeding One Dollar, as the Execu- 
tive Committee may determine. Honorary Members may be admitted by 
a vote of the majority of the Committee, or of the Association. 

5. The President and Vice-President mdi/y in their discretion, or, on the 
application of three Members of the Committee, shall call a meeting of the 
Committee or of the x\ssociation, notice thereof being published in at least 
two of the daily papers of the city. 

6. The Executive Committee is authorized, by a vote of two-thirds of its 
Members, to cause this Association to be incorporated under the General 
Laws of this State relating to Benevolent Societies, or under Special 
Charter, at its discretion. 

7. These Articles may be altered or amended by a vote of two-thirds of 
all the Members present at any meeting, provided that notice of such alter- 
ation and amendment shall have been given at the meeting next previous 
thereto. 




(f :c 1 1 tt t i I) t (If' 111 111 1 1 1 c c 



1863-4. 



Kev. FRAXCUS VINTON, D. D., Tuksidknt. 
JOHN E. WILLIAMS, Vice-President. 
BENJAMIN a. ARNOLD, Tkeasukek. 
GEORCJE WM. CURTIS, Coruespoxdixg Secretary. 
WILLIAM J. IIOPRIN, Re(c)k1)ixg Secretary. 



(HIARLES 11. RISSKLL, 
OEORGE S. COE, 
RANDALL II. GREENE, 
(UIARLES CONGDON. 



NEHEMIAII KNIGHT, 
PHILIP W. ENGS, 
JOHN II. ORMSBEE, 
BENJAMIN COZZENS. 



('Ommittee of Arra.\(.ements for the Axniversary Celehratiox, and 

ALSO FOR THE Pi' lil.UATlOX OF THE OrATIOX AND PoEM : 

Mr. KNIGHT, Mu. ARNOLD, 

Mr. ORMSBEE, Mr. HOPPIN. 



'^inuils of 'gljok fslani ani |lrobit)eiice |)lmitatioiis. 



THE OR^VTIOISr 

SPOKEN OX THE 

FIRST ANNIVERSARY 

OP 

THE SONS OF RHODE ISLAND IN NEW YORK, 

May 29, ISGG: 



BEING THE ANNIVEKSAEY OF THE ADOPTION BY RHODE ISLAND 
OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1790, 



AND ALSO (probably), 



THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE LANDING OF ROGER WILLIAMS OR THE 

SETTLEMENT OF "PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS IN 

NEW ENGLAND" IN 1C3C, 



FRANCIS VINTON, D.D., 

ASH19TANT MINISTER OF TKINITY rilURCII, NEW YORK, AND PRESIDENT OF 
THE S0N8 OP RHODE ISLAND. 



3bbcrtisenunt to the Jltiitcr. 



In publishing this contribution ro the Annals of my native State, at the 
request of the Sons of Rhode Island in New York, I cannot forbear to 
make public my acknowledgments to Mr. Henry T. Drowne, my fellow- 
statesman, whose patient and loving interest in whatever concerns the history 
and the welfare of Rhode Island, as well as his cherished personal friend- 
ship, has furnished excellence to my manuscript (which he took pains to 
copy) for the printer's elegant skill. He has likewise so enriched this 
pamphlet, by his exact erudition, with references to several authentic 
sources, as to entitle these " Annals" to the dignity of History, and to the 
confidence of the future scholar. 

Francis Vinton. 

Trinity Church, New York, Noveniber 25, 1863. 



The Oration was delivered also, by invitation 
Of tlie Long Island Historical Society, in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 11, 1863 ; 
Of the New York Historical Society, iu New York, June IG, 186:i ; 
Of the citizens of Providence, R. I., in Roger Williams Hall, June 26, 1S63 ; 
(If the Redwood Library Association, in Newport, R. I., in Aquidneck Hall, 
June 30, 18G3. 



THE OR^Tio:Nr 



Rhode Island, the smallest of the United States, was the 
cradle of the civilization of the nineteenth century. This is a 
bold statement, as well as lofty praise. And yet it is not arro- 
gant in the sons of Rhode Island to repeat what European Phi- 
losophers* have asserted, and tlie truth of history confirms. 

Professor Gervinus,f in his recent " Introduction to the His- 
tory of the Nineteenth Century,"' says that " Roger Williams 
founded, in 1636, a small now society in Ehode Island, upon 
the principles of entire lil)crty of conscience, and the uncon- 
trolled powers of the majority in secular concerns. The theo- 
ries of freedom in Church and State, taught in the schools of 
philosophy in Europe, were here brought into practice in the 
government of a small community. It was prophesied that the 
democratic attempts to obtain universal suffrage, a general elec- 
tive franchise, annual parliaments and entire religious freedom 
would be of short duration. But these institutions" (the foun- 
dations of which were laid in Rhode Island), "have not only 
maintained themselves in their birthplace, but have spread over 
the whole Union. They have superseded the aristocratic com- 
mencements of South Carolina and of New York, the high- 
church party of Virginia, the theocracy of Massachusetts, and 
the monarchy throughout America; they have given laws to 
one quarter of the globe, and, dreaded for their moral influence, 

''■' See Note I. — Letter of John Milton. 

\ Dr. (t. G. Gervinus, of Heidelberg, whose " Commentaries on Shakspeare's 
\Vritings" are liighly esteemed in Europe and America. 



8 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

tliey stand in the background of every democratic struggle in 
Europe."* 

Des Cartes founded modern pliiloso})liy on tlie method of free 
reflection. But, two years before Des Cartes startled Europe 
with his discussions on freethiidcing, Roger Williams asserted 
the intellcctnal liberty of man and the freedom of the conscience. 
Des Cartes derived his conclusions from douht of Divine Reve- 
lation : Roger Williams learned his truths from/(//^/i in God's 
written Word. The unbelieving })liiloso})her exalted the s])ecu- 
lations of liuman thought ; the humble Christian student yielded 
lowly reverence to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Yet, both 
the Divine and the Philosopher, almost simultaneously, in re- 
mote parts of the world, witliout collusion or conlerence, enun- 
ciated the right of conscience "to obey God rather than men." 
This w^as the echo of the voice of apostles and martyrs bursting 
from the caverns of the dark ages, where the arrogance of a cor- 
ru})t Church, conspiring with ignorance and superstition, had 
choked the soul and suppressed its l;)reathings. 

Acknowledging, as we do, the Providence of God over the 
affairs of the world, and seeing His hand in the progress of civil- 
ization, it is interesting and instructive to observe the instru 
ments which He employs, often of diverse materials and o])po- 
site characters, in accomplishing ITis purpose. 

In the early years of the seventeenth century, Germany was 
the battle-field for all Europe in the wars for Religion ; Holland 
was torn by infuriate tactions ; France was arming for a strug- 
gle with bigotr}^ ; England was gasping under the load of intol- 
erance. It was the second era of the Reformation, when the 
emancipated mind was resisting the attempts of the usurper to 
re-enslave it. It was the after-birth of the new civilization. 
Europe demanded one course of treatment, America another, to 
pi-oduce sound health. In the Old Countries, institutions were 

* Quotod fnuii '-An Arcomit of tlie Writings of Roger Williams,"* by R. A. 
Guild, Librarian of Brown University. 

* Th(^ oriijiiial vi>\\\ ii( "Experiments of Spiritual I,ife and Health, and their Preservatives," liy 
llofcer Williams, is in tlu' lilirary of .John Carter Krown, Ksci., of rrovidciiep, and was reei'nlly 
r.'prlnled by Sidney S, Kider, of that oity. 



AND PKOVIDKN'CE PLANTATIONS. 9 

to be modified ; in tlie New Country, institutions were to be 
created. And while the philosopher, living in a i-egion of 
thought far above that by which he is surrounded, and remote 
from the strife of common minds, might, without suspicion of 
party proclivities, announce the principle which was to reform so- 
ciety and would be accepted by the struggling partisans ; at the 
same time, the Christian Colonist,* about to found a State, and 
living amidst the real hardships of savage life, might put in 
practice the same principle, as the leaven of a fresh Common- 
wealth, and rear a fabric of society that should become a living 
pattern to the nations of the world. Des Cartes would have 
been as much out of place in the wilds of New England, as 
Roger Williams would have been out of place among the savans 
of Holland and France. While, therefore, the battle of tlie 
soul's freedom was being fovrjht in Europe, the Providence of 
God was cstahlisJnng the freedom of the soul in Rhode Island. 

It will recj^uire an effort in us, who have been familiar with 
the civilization of a century, to appreciate the full value of our 
freedom, and to do just honor to those who gained it for us. 
The boy who rides on the railway car, at the speed of thirty 
miles an hour, and reads the telegraphic news from California, of 
the date of yesterday, imagines that these things have been so 
always. The history of Commerce will inform him how slow 
and painful have been the steps of improvement, and what a 
debt he owes to his fathei's for their gradual and trium|)hant 
experiments. So the civilization of the nineteenth century owes 
to the Cartesian school of philosophy, and to the lively demo- 
cratic experiments of Rhode Island men, the familiar blessings 
of toleration and liberty of thought, which we prize as our 
birthright. 

I trust that it will not be considered presumptuous, there- 
fore, nor in any measure self-complacent, wliile we talk of 
Rhode Island's greatness. 

* Prof. William Gammell's Life of Roger Williams, — .Sparks' American Biogra- 
phy, vol. xiv., pp. 20G, 207. Tuckermau's Biographical Essays, — '• Roger "Wil- 
liams, the Tolerant Colonist," pp. ISI-IOO. Knowlcs' Memoirs of Roger AVil- 
liam.s, pp. 389, 435-437. 



10 ANXALS OF KIIODE ISLAND 

The antiquity of Rhode Island annals, probably exceeds tliat 
of auv otlicr portion of our country. You will find them in tlie 
Scandina^•ian libraries of Iceland and Sweden, in the narrative 
of the voyages of the Northmen, before Columbus discovered 
America. Its most ancient European name is " Vinland," and 
its climate is described just as the modern meteorologist 
describes it, or as the senses of the throngs of modern visitors 
enjoy it. 

There stands the mysterious "Old Mill'' in Newport, set up 
on shafts, or columns, in the architecture of the eleventh cen- 
tury, a fireplace in it, and window-openings outlooking towards 
the sea, and in the direction of Seaconnet and Conanicut. 

The anticpmries of Stockholm and Copenhagen say, with confi 
dence, that the Northmen built it, after the pattern of their old 
coast-towers, both as a fortress and a granary, wherein the voy- 
agers deposited the reserve supplies, and left a garrison, while 
they prosecuted their explorations. The windows for the look- 
out of the sentinels, the fireplace for cooking of provisions, and 
the columns to lift the garrison and stores beyond the reach of 
the predatory savages, all touch the question and seem to con- 
firm the theory. 

Governor Benedict Arnold, in his last Will,* styles the edi- 
lice his '' Mill." And, doubtless, he used it for a windmill ; 
for the location of a tower for observation, and a windmill for 
grinding corn, is the spot highest in the neighborhood ; and the 
settlers of Aquidncck, in 1638, probably found the structure for 
their windmill already reared. For, if ('//cy built it, why should 
they build it of stones?. Why lift it up on shafts? Why open 
it towards the sea, and not landward ? Why put a fireplace in 
it? These questions the Archaeological Society of Norway and 
Sweden have answered, by affirming that the Northmen were 
the architects. 

Prof Kafn (in the "Memoires da la Societe Eoyale des Anti- 
quaries du Nord,'" for 1838-1839), says : " From such character- 

* Recorded in the Town Clerk's office, Newport, R. I., p. ,'i48, No. 5, Probato 
Records. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 11 

istics as remain, we can scarcely form any other inference than 
one, in which I am persuaded that all who are familiar with old 
Northern Architecture will concur, tliat this huilding was erect- 
ed at a 2)eriod decidedly not later than the tvwlfth century. ^^ 

Nor is the old mill at Newport the only token of the antiqui- 
ty of Rhode Island annals.* There are the remains of the civ- 
ilization of the Middle Ages in " the Skeleton in Armor," which 
was dug up at Fall River a few years ago (1850), clad in the 
mail of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, broken and corroded 
by time. This discovery inspired Longfellow, as you know, to 
compose the ballad suggested to him " while riding on the sea- 
shore at Newport," full of poetic fire and historic probability : 

" THE SKELETON IN ARMOR." 

" Speak ! speak I thou fearful guest I 
Who, with thy hollow breast, 
Still in rude armor drest, 

Comest to daunt me I 
Wrapt not in Eastern balms, 
But with thy fleshles.s palms 
Stretched, as if asking alms, 

Why dost thou haunt me ?" 

Then, from those cavernous eyes 
Pale flashes seem to rise, 
As when the Northern skies 

Gleam in December; 
And. like the waters flow 
Under December's snow, 
Came a dull voice of woe 

From the heart's chamber. 

" I was a Viking old ! 
My deeds, though manifold, 
No Skald in song has told, 
No Saga taught thee ! 
****** 

"I wooed the blue-eyed maid. 
Yielding, yet half afraid, 
And in the forest's shade 

Our vows were plighted. 
***** 

* I do not mention the inscription on Dighton Rock, which is not yet satisfacto- 
rily deciphered. 



12 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

" As with his wings aslant, 
Sails tlie fierce cormorant, 
Seeking some rocky haunt, 

With his prey laden ; 
So toward the open main, 
Beating to sea again, 
Through the wild hurricane, 

Bore I the maiden. 

"Three weeks we westward bore, 
And when the storm was o'er, 
Cloud-like we saw the shore 

Stretching to leeward; 
There for my lady's bower 
Built I the lofty tower. 
Which to this very hotir, 

Stands looking seaward. 

He * * •-:< * 

" Death closed her mild blue eyes. 
Under that tower she lies : 
Ne'er shall tlie sun arise 
On such another." 

And, as there is mucli of romantic interest in the misty and 
uncertain story of Rhode Island, which the transathantic Anti- 
quarian and the American Poet would embalm, in history and 
in song, so Rhode Island's Annals of Indian Diplomacy and In- 
dian Wars are full of examples of wisdom, of kindness, of 
bravery, and of fortitude, to inspire the loftiest strains of poetry 
and to challenge the eulogiums of the historic pen. 

Mount Hope was the seat of tlie royal court of Massasoit, 
and his son Metacomet, or Pometacom,* or Metacom, known 
and named l)y the English as King Philip. 

" When Roger Williams left Salem to obtain permission from 
the Indians to settle at Seekonk,"' says Professor Elton, " it ap- 
pears that he made his way through the desolate wilderness to 
Ousame(piin, or Massasoit, the Sachem of the Pokanokets, who 
resided at Mount Hope, near the present town of Bristol, Rhode 
Island. This famous Chief occupied the country, north from 
Mount Hope, as far as Charles River. "f He and his son Pom- 

* Drake's Book of the Indians, — Life of King Phihp, book iii., chap, ii., p. 13. 
f Khon's Life of Roger Williams, p. 37. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 13 

etacorn gave the title deeds* of New Bedford and other towns. 
Massasoitf was the acknowledged sovereign of the territory 
which the Pilgrim Fathers settled; and the original seat of em- 
pire over Plymouth and Massachusetts was in Ehode Island. 

The influence of climate on character, which political phi- 
losophers maintain, is strongly corroborated by the historic 
fact that Ehode Island has produced the aboriginal lords, 
and the greatest men, of the barbarous tribes of Indians in New 
England. The wisdom and power of Massasoit ; the gentle 
courtesy of old Canonicus ;:}; the discernment, the cautious con- 
fidence, the fidelity and honor of Miantinomoh ;§ the far-reach- 
ing statesmanship, and the intrepid valor and fortitude of Met- 
acomet, were characteristics of the Narragansett race, whose 
intelligence, virtue, and bravery, not only gave them mastery 
over the Indian tribes, in war and in peace, but also commanded 
the unwilling tribute of respect from the Puritan Pilgrims. 

The Narragansetts were the victors over every tribe in Indian 
wars, and the tutors of Indians in the savage arts of peace. 
Tliey coined the Wampum, | both black and white — the money 
of the tribes^from the shells of the Ehode Island shores. 
They excelled in agriculture and in the manufactures. They 
gave the laws. While other tribes were Polygamists, they 
alone were Monogamists. 

She who reigned over the Scaconnets, Queen Awashonks, is, 
both b}^ the famous Captain Benjamin Church and by Drake, 
the annalists, described in glowing praise, as possessing charms 
and virtues belonging to high civilization.^ She was the friend 
of the English, to be sure, but she was the friend and ally of 
King Philip also : she was faithful to her nation, yet tolerant of 
the foreigners settled amongst them. The remnant of her tribe 
remained in Little Compton. 

* Drake's Indians, book ii., chap, ii., p. 26; also, book iii., chap, ii., pp. 13-15. 
t R. I. Hist. Coll., vol. iii., — Potter's Early History of Narragansett, p. 78. 
X Jh., pp. 42-47. Drake's Indians, book ii., chap, iii., pp. 47-52. 
§ lb., p. 42. lb., book ii., chap, iv., pp. 59-67. 

II Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 406. Knowles' Memoir of Roger Williams, p. 88. 
% Drake's Indians, book iii., chap, iv., p. 62. Captain Benjamin Church's In- 
dian Wars. 



14 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

Strange mutations of liuman fortune ! WitLin tin's present 
year, the railway from Newport to Fall River has required ex- 
cavations through the burial places of those famous Narragan- 
sctts; and the rude spades of Irish laborers have laid bare the 
graves, and skeletons, and utensils, and ornaments of the In- 
dians to the gaze of the stolid and curious — of the tourist and 
the anti(|uarian. Two years ago, in 1861, some antiquaries in 
Charleston, Rhode Island, opened the graves in " Sachem's 
Burial Ground ;" and in this city of New York, on this very 
spot, the skulls of Ninigret* and his maiden daughter, with the 
copper bowls and implements of the royal Wigwam (evidently 
manufactured by the Dutch), and the long precious chain of 
silver reaching from head to foot, and her gold sleeve-buttons, 
with other ornaments of silk and gold and wampum, that 
some time served to embellish her royal person ; and coins, 
bearing date 1650, Ludovicus XIIIL, with other curious things, 
were exhibited by Rhode Island's learned Archgeologistjf and 
formed the topic of his instructive lecture before the Historical 
Society of New York in November, 1862, and will likely be 
deposited in the Historical Society's Museum in Central Park. 
Well might our Indian Sachems exclaim, with Hamlet, to the 
grave-diggers of tlie Nineteenth Century : " To what base uses 
we may return ! Why may not imagination trace the noble 
dust of Massasoit, till he find it stopping a bung-hole ?" 

Imperial Ninigret, dead, and brought to light 
Has had his skull a topic for a niglit. 

But, in a higher point of view, we rejoice that the soil of 
Rhode Island has surrendered her deposits to enrich the history 
of New York, and exemplify the trade of the Dutch settlers. 

The story of King Philip's war is too familiar to be recited. 
But we may say, that, for love of country and the determination 
to defend it ; for the prowess of the Colonists, like Captain 

* Potter's Early History of Narragansett, p. 50. 

f Dr. Usher Parsons' Lecture before the N. Y. Hist. Soc, published in the His- 
torical Magazine for February, 1863. Dr. Parsons is the last surviving commis- 
sioned ofiQcer of Perry's flag-ship in the battle of Lake Erie. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 15 

Church, persevering to conquer; for the hardships, the vahir, 
the self-sacrifices, the heroism, which wars of conquest and de- 
fence evince, for the incidents of hair-breadth cscai)es and skil- 
ful strategy, the stronghold in the swamp, the fiery assault, the 
ice-bridge, that bore the assailants to' victory and the Indians to 
despair, the extermination of the Narragansetts ;* these are 
topics for the prolonged eloquence of our Poets and Histoiians, 
not exhausted by the " Yamoyden" of Sands and Eastburn, nor 
by the narratives of Church and Drake, nor by the histories 
of Bancroft and Arnold. Alas ! for the Indians ! they had no 
literature, else the lion would have been painted as killing the 
man; and not man the lion. But though we may find in the 
contem}>oraneous annals, only epithets of beast and savage and 
■ devil, with cognate characteristics, yet the calm justice of later 
chroniclers portrays the character and exploits of the Narragan- 
setts in colors of humanity and heroism. What loftier 
gTa,ndeur does history narrate than Metacomet's reply to the 
messenger of the Governor of Massachusetts? — "Your Gov- 
ernor is but a subject of King Charles, of England. I shall 
not treat with a subject. I shall treat of })eace only with the 
King, my brother. When he comes, I am ready. "f It is like 
that of the captive Porus to Alexander the Great, who, when 
asked, " How he would be treated," answered, "Like a king.";}: 
What abundant incidents in King Philip's life § furnish the 
richest material for poetry, and song, and drama ! His acces- 
sion to the throne of Massasoit, his patriotic speeches to his 
young men, his masterful diplomacy with the neighboring- 
tribes, his secret preparations for the grand ujnising, his fierce 
encounters and undaunted perseverance when all seemed lost, 
his pilgrimage to the Mohawks to engage them in the war, the 
capture and death of his wife, and the selling of his only son 

* Judge Durfee's "Works, — " Ilistoiy of the Subjection aud Kxtermination of the 
Narragansetts," pp. 203-271. 

f Drake's Indians, — Life of King Pliilip, Ijdok iii., chap, ii., p. 21. 

J Phitarch's Life of Alexander. 

§ Washington Irving's Sketch Book, — Pliihp of Pokanokct, pp. 380-407, Put- 
nam's most elegant Artists' Edition, from Alvord's press. 



10 ANNALS OF RIIODK ISLAND 

(the last of the family of Massasoit) into slavery in Bermuda, 
his return to the desolate solitude of his seat at Mount Hope, 
his desperation and the pathos of his mourning, his massacre by 
the hand of the traitor, the quartering of his carcass at the com- 
mand of the otherwise chivalrous Captain Church, and the hang- 
ing of it on four trees, and the rude spite of the Indian butcher 
addressing the dead body of King Philip: "You liave been a 
very great man, and have made many a man afraid of you, but 

so big as you be, I will now chop your for you ;''* and, 

finally, the exhibiting of his head on a gibbet, in Plymouth, for 
twenty years, one hand sent to Boston as a trophy, and the 
other scarred hand given to Alderman, tlie traitor who shot 
him, to show, "at a jDcnny a siglit," tliroughout the Colonies of 
New England ;f these are copious themes for thought and for 
the muse. 

" Even that he lived is for his conqueror's toniJ'ue, 
By foes alone his death-song must be sung.'':j; 

"The wife of Pometacom, the innocent AYootonekanuske, 
with her little son, fell into the hands of Captain Church," writes 
Drake. § "No wonder that Philip was 'now ready to die, and 
that his heart was now ready to Ijreak,' as some of his traitor- 
ous men told Captain Church. All that was dear to him was 
swallowed up. But liis only son, the future Sachem of the Nar- 
ragansetts, still lived, and this most harrowed his soul. Lived 
for what? To serve as a slave in an unknown land. Could it 
be otherwise than that madness should seize upon him, and 
despair torment him ? Tliat in his sleep he shoidd hear the 
anguishing cries of Wootonekanuske and his son ? But "we 
must change the scene." And with him I pass to better spec- 
tacles in our History. 

* •• Fulvia, the wife of Anthony, showed her spite against Cicero by boring his 
tongue through with her bodliin." 

f .Arnold's History of the State of Rliode Island, vol. i, p. tlfi. Drake's Indians, 
— Life of King Philip, book iii., cliap. ii., p. 37. Cluireh's Indian Wars. 

I Charles Sprague. 

§ Drake's Indians, — Life of King Pliilip, book iii., chap. ii.. p. 13. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 1 I 

There have been four eras in our State : 

I. — Its Settlement. 
II. — Its Charter. 

III. — The Adoption of the Fgederal Constitution. 
lY.— The Dorr War. 

I do not intend to narrate the circumstances of the settle- 
ment of our State, with which the sons of Ehode Island are 
familiar, furtlier than to trace the effects of the principle of the 
Civil Polity on the inhabitants, whereby Ehode Islanders are 
"a peculiar people ;" and also note the reaction of the j^eople 
on the Civil Polity, which has outlived two centuries. And 
this discussion will comprehend the first two eras of Ehode 
Island. 

The Charter of '' Providence Plantations in New England," 
obtained by Eoger Williams, was signed Thursday, 14th March, 
1643-4,* and was confirmed by Ohver Cromwell, March 29, 
1655.f It did not include Ehode Island, but only main-land 
towns. 

The Charter of Charles II., procured by Dr. John Clarke,:}: is 
dated 8th July, 1663, and includes the islands and main-land, 
and gives the peculiar title to " The State of Ehode Island and 
Providence Plantations." Amidst all the changes of the dynas- 
ties of Europe, and of Asia, the Charter of 1663 remained fixed. 
During the Colonial Period, the Eevolution, the Confederation, 
the Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, the 
establishment of New States, and amidst the unsettlements of 
every other State Constitution, the Eoyal Charter of Ehode 
Island stood without amendment. It contained three grand 
principles: 1st. The acknowledijment of Indian Titles. 2d. 
It alloios liherty of Conscience. 3d. It establishes Repvblican 
Government. 

* Arnold's Hist. R. I., vol. i , p. Ill, note. 

f lb., p. 255. 

X -'The original projector of the settlement on Rhode Island, in 1638; and the 
first regularly educated physician who ever practised in the State." — Goddaud's 
Address on the occasion of the chamje in the Civil Government of Rhode Island, Mav 
3, 1843, p. 54. 
2 



18 ANNALS OF RiroDE I.-^I.AND 

This old Charter, granted Ijotli by Parliament and by a king, 
was also the fikst written Constitution in the World. 
The Royal Charter survived the attempts of demagogues to an- 
nul and supersede it. It was the fundamental law of the State 
froiri 1663 to May 2, 1843, when it was superseded by " the 
authentic act of the whole people." 

As it was proclaimed at its birth as a " livelie experiment" of 
a pure "Democracie," with liberty of freemen to ele('t the freemen 
who should compose the State,* and with "full Libcrtie of Con- 
science in all religious concernments;" so it "particularly" 
orders, — before William Penn set foot in Annnica, — "the 
makiuge of ])urchases of the native Jndians,"f and is the t'r--<t 
soLetnn 2>r(>tf%d o^ nit'rcy ii\\(\ jir!<tirc''\. against the claim (jf the 
Pope as vicar of Jesus Christ, and of the Sovereigns of Europe 
to the control of newly discovered countries. 

The j)rinciples of aboiugixaf. titles, of soUL-LrBKRTV', and 
of DEMOCRACY, which Roger Williams asserted in 1630 l)el'ore 
the j)eo])le of England; which he avoweil on arriving at 
Boston in 1631 ; which he sustained amidst the bickerings of a 
colonial parish in Plymouth; which he asserted before the 
General Court of Massachusetts in 1635 ; which, on his banish- 
ment from Massachusetts he introduced into the })rimeval 
forests on Nurragansett Bay in 1636 ; wliich he incorporated into 
tlie written l)ond of town-fellowship in Providence.' ("the cai'liest 
form of government recorded, wherein is expressly recognized 
the rights of conscience ') :§ — principles which he published to 
the world, and defended as the birth-right of mankind ; which 
he embodied in the Charter procured by hiui from Cromwells 

* "The soverei;.'!! jiowcr of all civil nuthoritv is fuundcl in the consent of the 
people. " — Roger Williams' " Bl.owlijT'nieat" pp. IKJ, 2i;!. 

f Kinf,' Cliarlos'.s Charter of 1<J6;}. 

\ Arnold's Hist. R. I., vol. i., chapter 4. 

§ Elton's Life of Roirer Williams, ]>. 1.5: 

'■ Roger Williams justly claims the honor of having been the first legislator in 
the world, in its latter ages, that fully and effectually provided for and estaldished 
a full, free, and absolute liberty of conscience." — .Siei'iikn' HorKiNS. several times 
Governor, and a signer of the Declaration. For a complete refutation of the rival 
claims of Maryland, see Judge Pitman's Centennial Discourse, August 5, 1 837 
p. 8. 



AND PKOVIDKNCK I'l-ANTATIONS. 19 

Parliament in England, in 1644; and wliicli princi})les were 
embalmed in tlie lioyal Cliarter of Charles 11., in 1663,* can never 
be liolden by the bands of death; but they are revived, and 
live in the Constitution of Khode Island of 1843. On those 
memorable days in May (1st and 2d), in the State House at 
Newport, your President was the Priest who oflered the prayers 
attlio decease of the Charted' and its revival in the Constitution. f 
There, in that most beautiful spot in Newport, where, on the 
24th of November, 1663, the Colonists welcomed the arrival 
of "George Baxter, the most faithful and happy bringer of the 
Charter" (as the record quaintly reports) ; we, of this generation, 
assembled in the balmy month of May, 1843, to resign the 
parchment and to receive again its recorded principles in the 
more graceful investiture of a Constitution. 

The Government of Bhode Island, under the Charter, has 
been eminently a government of law and order. No State has 
endured more heat in the strife of political parties, but no profane 
Uzznh has dared to lay his I'ude hand upon the ark of religious 
and political freedom in Rhode Island. The men who governed 
the State owned the State. The State has never interfered with 
religion, and religionists have been deprivedof every pretext for 
interfering with tlie State. These are the grand secret causes of 
the prosperity, and peace, and order which the people of Rhode 
Island enjoyiHl under the Charter. 

One of the early colonial documents confesses, in its old-fash- 
ioned, expressive way, that " we have long draidc of the cup of 
as great liberties as any people that we can hear of under the 
whole Heaven.":}: And our most distinguished historian, Mr. 
Bancroft, exclaims : " It has outlived the principles of Claren- 
don, and the policy of Charles II. Nowhere in the world have 



* "Our (jh;irter excels all in New Kii<j;land, or in the world, as to the souls of men V 
— Roc.KR Williams, Providence, 15tli Jannarj', 1G81. 

f Soo Note II. — Tiie last days of the Charter Letrislature, and the organization 
of the Government under the Constitution. 

J A<ldress of Tlianks of the Town Meeting of Providence to Sir TTenrj Vnne, 
August 27, 1051. " Under God," (says B.vcKua, ///>/. of the li'iptisls, vol. i., p. 2St;— 
Bancuoft, vol. i., p. 427), " the sheet-anchor of Khode Island, was Sir Henry." 



20 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

life, libert}', and property, been safer than in Rhode Island !"* 
And well do I remember the pathos of tone and the voice of 
trembling, when Professor Goddard, the orator, who, on May 
3, 1843, made the address to the people of Rhode Island on 
the occasion of the change in Civil Government, wherein he 
said : " Fellow citizens ! can we ])ass, without emotions allied 
to those of filial sorrow, from under the beneficent dominion 
of the old Charter, the oldest constitutional charter in the 
world ? Can we take our leave of this ancient and excel- 
lent frame of Civil Polity, without being penetrated with 
sentiments of gratitude for the rich blessings of which it has 
been the parent to this State, through all the vicissitudes of her 
being ? Can we ever lose the conviction that this Charter con- 
tains principles destined never to perish? How inseparable, 
likewise, is the Charter from all our memories, not only of the 
deeds, but of the men of other times !''f 

Shall I not, on this occasion, Sons of Rhode Island, recall the 
names and deeds of your fathers ? The muster-roll of no com- 
munit}^, not larger than Rhode Island, has enriched history with 
men wdio have served their generation with conspicuous merit ; 
or moulded public aflairs at home and abroad ; or acquired a 
world-wide fame in the annals of Peace and War, superior to 
the native and adopted citizens of our State. Though her pop- 
ulation, even now, is surpassed in number by many a single 
ward in this great city of New York, yet, among the greater 
and lesser lights that spangle the firmament of national renown 
and shine throughout the civilized world, Rhode Island's sons, 
reared under the benignant charter of democratic and relio:ious 
liberty, have emblazoned her standard with their exploits, and 
pervaded the nations with their influences. 

Crowning the list, stands Roger Williams,:}: wdiose teach- 
ings and experiments in Christian Ethics and Political Organi- 
zation are acknowledged to have inspired the statesmanship oi 

* Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. ii., p. 04. See also Note I. 

f (loddard's Address, p. '2'.'. 

X See NoTK III.— Sketch of the Life of Roger Williams. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 21 

two continents. And passing along the years of our colonial 
infancy, till we reach the times of the Revolution, when the 
Colonies were ripening into the manhood of States, we come to 
the name of Abraham Whipple, tlie commander who first 
dared to attack and capture the British armed vessel, the Gas- 
pee, in the Narragansett waters, on June 9-10, 1772, shedding 
the Jirsthlood of the li evolution^ and lighting, in her burning 
wreck, the first beacon-fires in the War of Independence ; and 
who, six years later, being the first Commodore with the commis- 
sion of the Continental Congress, discharged the first American 
broadside into his Majesty's navy. All this happened in Nar- 
ragansett waters. Whipple commanded the frigate Providence. 
William Jones, afterwards Governor of Rhode Island from 1811 
to 1817, was Captain of Marines, and bearer of dispatches to Dr. 
Franklin, in Paris.* The frigate passed the blockade from Prov- 
idence to Point Judith, fired broadsides into the British frigate 
Lark and her Tender, and reached France in safety.f If pos- 
terity demand the names and deeds of the heroes who were fore- 
most, and led the van of the patriot soldiers of "the times that 
tried men's souls," Rhode Island presents her valiant sons who 
were led by Whipple, and history awards to her the honorable 
pre-eminence. 

And next stands Esek Hopkixs, whom Congi'css, in 1775, 
selected and commissioned as Commodore of the first Fleet, and 
placed him at the head of the navy of the Republic, before the 
first year of Independence. It was he who trained John Paul 
Jones in seamanship, and prepared him for the sailing orders 
that sent him, in the Ranger;}: and the Bon Homme Richard, to 
devastate the coast of England and Scotland, and fling defiance to 
the lion in his lair, and spread before the dismayed populace of 
Britain, and the admiring eyes of Europe, the fresh flag of the 
Stars and Stripes, under whose folds he swept the seas of British 
commerce ; and who has furnished story and song with the 

* Captain Jones was the first officer of the navy of the United States who ap- 
peared in Europe in uniform. 

f See Note IV. — Letter of William Jones Hoppin. 

X Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, vol. ii., pp. 640, G41. 



22 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

theme of heroism, and whose victorious fight with the Serapis* 
is workl-renownod. The navy of tlie United States was born 
and nursed and reared in Ehode Island, and organized by her 
sons. 

If we turn now to the army of the Revolution, Nathaniel 
Greexe,! the blacksmith of Warwick, standing next to Wasii- 
INGTOX, was named by "the Father of his Country" as qualified 
to succeed him in the su])reme command. lie was the redeemer 
of the Soutli from their ca[)tivity to the hostile Briton, and 
received from grateful Georgia both land and citizenship, as the 
tribute to her champion. And side by side with Greene fought 
Ca}>tain Stephen Olney:|:, who commanded the Rhode Island 
Regiment (known as the Forlorn Hope of the army), and whom 
La, Fayette entitled his brave comrade. At the siege of York- 
town, which terminated tlie War of Independence, the Rhode 
Island Regiment, led by Olney, stormed the works, and planted 
the victorious ensign of the emancipated Republic on the con- 
quered battlements. I was present, when a boy, in 1824, at the 
entry of La Fayette into my nati^'e town of Providence, and 
witnessed the warm embrace of La Fayette and Olney at the west 
door of the State House, while tlie veterans wept in each other's 
arms. There was Bakton,§ too, who, at the peril of his life, 
seized General Prescott while in bed, surrounded by his guards, 
and bore him away, to be held as hostage for our captured Gen- 
eral Lee. La Fayette found Barton in jail for debt, in Vermont, 
for the taxes on his bounty land,I| and released him from prison 
by i)aying his del)t. Colonel Christopher Greene also, for 
liis gallant defence of the Fort at Red Bank, deserves honora- 
ble mention. Tliese were sons of Rhode Island, who, with 
a numerous company of })atri(>ts, fought the fight of Independ- 
ence, and who led the arinies of tlie Revolution. Besides 
these worthy men, Rhode Island gave to New York the first 

• I,ossin,tr's Field Book of the Revolution, vol. ii., pp. 610. Q\%. 

f His Life and Letters, edited by his grandson, CJeorge Wasliington Greene, will, 
when pulilislied, Ijo wclcoaied as a most important contribution to the History of 
the Revolution. 

J Mrs. Williams's Life of Barton and Olney. § Ih. 

\ Barton swore he would not pay a tax for his country's <!;ift. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 23 

Mayor of the city after tlie conquest by the Englisli in 1665, — 
Thomas Willett, who afterwards returned to Rhode Island, 
where his monument still exists.* He was twice major, and 
was the great grandfather of the famous Colonel Marinus Wil- 
lettjf of the Revolution. 

And let us not forget Rhode Island's adopted son, the good 
Dean Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, in Ireland. 
Intent on the benevolence of missionary efforts among the In- 
dians, in a time of deep religious lethargy in England, when 
bribery and corruption blackened Walpole's administration and 
darkened the historic era of both Church and State, Berkeley 
won the unforced eulogium of the poet Pope : 

"To Berkeley, even'' virtue under lieaven." 

And the calm Bishop Atterburj":}: said of him : "So much un- 
derstanding, so much knowledge, so much innocence, and such 
Immility, I did not think had been the portion of any but 
angels, until I saw this gentleman." Arriving in Rhode Island 
January 23, 1729, with several literary and scientific gentlemen, 
and artists (among whom was Smybert, who gave the first im- 
pulse to American Art, in Painting and Architecture), he fixed 
his residence in Newport ; and was admitted freeman of Rhode 
Island by the Colonial General Assembly. He built a house 
(now standing and visited by the curious and the reverent), 
which he named " Whitehall ;" and there waited in vain for the 
promised endowment of his Indian College from the British 
Administration. But not in vain, nor idly, did this great man 
spend his time in Rhode Island. During his residence there, 
he meditated and composed his " Alciphron, or Minute Philos- 
opher ;" and, as tradition says, wrote it in the natural alcove of 
the Hanging Rocks at the beach in Newport. Inspired by his 

* Stone's Life and Recollections of John Howland, p. 267. 

f Presiding officer of the Sons of Liberty in Xew York, in 1115 ; sheriff for sev- 
eral years, and Mayor in 1807. See Narrative, with Sketch of his Life, Xew York 
during the American Revolution, pp. 53-65. 

X Francis Atterbury, born 1662, Bishop of Rochester under Queen Anne, friend 
of Pope, Swift, and Berkeley, was banished by tlio Parliament of George IL, and 
died in France, in exile, 1742. 



24 ANNALS OF KHODE ISLAND 

mystic tlieme, in full view of tlie ocean, and surrounded bj the 
expanse of Nature, he produced a work which, for subtle argu- 
ment and nice illustration, has commanded the admiration of 
the meta])hvsicians of the world ; while it shamed into con- 
fusion the materialism of Hobbes and the sophistries of Hume, 
to the delight of theologians. It was published by James 
Franklin, in Newport. The old organ* in Trinity Church, 
Newport, and the Berkeley Library in Yale College, and in 
Harvard University, are mementos of the benevolence and 
learning of Bishop Berkeley. His letters to England first ac- 
quainted his contemporaries with the details of the climate and 
government of Rhode Island, with whic-h he was charmed. In 
New})ort, under the date of April 24, 1729, he writes to 
Thomas Prior, of Dublin, thus : " I can, by this time, say some- 
thing to you, from my own experience, of this place and people. 
The inhabitants are of a mixed kind, consisting of many sects 
and subdivisions of sects. Here are four sorts of Anabaptists, 
besides Presbyterians, Quakers, Independents, and many of no 
profession at all. Notwithstanding so many differences, here 
are fewer quarrels about religion than elsewhere, the people 
living peaceably with their neighbors of whatsoever persuasion. 
They all agree in one point, that the Church of England is the 
second best. The climate is like that of Italy, and not at all 
colder in the winter than I have known it everywhere north 
of Rome. The summers are much pleasanter than those of 
Italy by all accounts; forasmuch as the grass continues green, 
wliich it doth not there. The vines sprout up of themselves to 
an extraordinary size, and seem as natural to this soil as to any 
I ever saw. The town of Newport contains a1)out six thousand 
souls, and is the most thriving, flourishing place in all America 
for its l)igness. I was never more agTeeal)ly surprised than at 
the first sight of the town and its harbor.""f 

* "The lirst orfj^an ever heard in America." — Lossing's Ficfon'al JliMorij of the 
U. S., p. lis. '"In Old Trinity the organ ho bestowed, peals over the grave of his 
tirstborn in the adjoining burial-gronnd. A towTi in Massachusetts bears his 
name." — Tuckf^hman's Biogrdphienl Es.-<aijs, p. 266. 

f Bislifip Berkeley's Worlcs — Extracts from Letters, p. xxii. AlsoCalleuder's 
Historical Discourse in Collections of the R. I. Hist. Soc, vol. iv., p. 31, notes. 



AND PROVIDENCE ]>LANTA'J'IONS. 25 

While residing in Newport, Dean Berkeley composed tlie 
stirring lyric that, with prophetic ken, startled into derision the 
men in the Old World, and now stirs the American people with 
its truth — the last verse of which Leutze has frescoed on the 
walls of the new Capitol at Washington, by his inimitable 
illustration. Though often quoted, yet, as a Ehode Island pro- 
duction, I may be pardoned for reproducing and reciting it. 

It is entitled : 

ON THE 

Profped: of Planting Arts and Learning 
in America. 

THE Mufe, difguftcd at an Age and Clime, 
Barren of every glorious Theme, 
In dillant Lands now waits a better Time, 
Producing Subjeds worthy Fame : 

In happy Climes, where from the genial Sun 

And virgin Earth fuch Scenes enlue. 
The Force of Art by Nature feems outdone. 

And fancied Beauties by the true : 

In happy Climes the Seat of Innocence, 

Where Nature guides and Virtue rules. 
Where Men fhall not impofe for Truth and Senfe, 

The Pedantry of Courts and Schools : 

There fhall be fung another golden Age, 

The rife of Empire and of Arts, 
The Good and Great infpiring epic Rage, 

The wifeft Heads and nobleft Hearts. 

Not fuch as Europe breeds in her decay ; 

Such as fhe bred when frefh and young. 
When heavenly Flame did animate her Clay, 

By future Poets fhall be fung. 

Weftward the Courfe of Empire takes its Way ; 

The Jou7' firft Ads already part, 
A fifth fhall clofe the Drama with the Day ; 

Time's noblest Offspring is the last. 



2G ANNALS OF JHIODK |Sr>ANl> 

I conic now to the third era in llie Ilisloi'y of Rliodc 
Island — tlic A(h)ptioii of the (Jonslit ution of the United States. 

'I'lie happv establishment oCthe Independence of tlie Colonies 
fixed Rhode Island as a State in the; postui-e of sovereig'nty, 
whei-ein, she, more than any other of the (Colonies, had placed 
hei'selh Ilei- (Miarter was jjccnliar; hci' ])opulation, at first het- 
erogeneous, and made np of rclViu'ees ; and her teri'itorj become, 
what Ho,!j;»'r Williams reekon(;d as its g;lory, the j)la(;e (jf resort 
of all persons "distressed of conscience," fleein;^; Irom the per- 
secutions, real or fancied, of tlu; Puiitan brethren. SIk; was 
sequestered, like her own deal' island, from her nei,iihboi's, and 
stood aloof, in the drcail of eontact- and in tlu; pi'idc of s(!elusion. 
All this pritduccd and ibstei'cd a, spirit, ol' indejx'ndenee, both 
of tliou_u;ht and action. Kevertheless, KIkmIc; Island was fa\'or- 
al)le to a Confederation, on the basis of her sovereij^'iitv as a 
State, with hei' sister Colonies. ^I'hc dan.ucrs imjiending in 
1774, which threatened the snbj'u^iation of the Colonies, had 
sug<j,"csted the necessity of Union; and the "Sons of Liberty," 
in New Voi-k, on the lOtli of May, had made a [iroposal for 
"a(jieneral Congress." But this, and other suggestions to the 
same end, were unonicial and dilfiiscd. But on the 17th of 
May, 1774, the jteople of Pi'ovidence, in town meeting, Jdi'm- 
ally jii'oposed "a Union of the Colonics — the Continental Con- 
gress," and "a few w(;eks later, the Legislatur(! of Rhode Island 
was also the very first to elect Delegates to that Congi'ess." 
Accordingly, the Historian of Rhode Island, Mr. Arnold, justly 
claims for Rhode Island "the distinguished honor of making 
the lirst ev;]>licit movement" of established authority, for the 
Continental Congress, wdiic-h framed the Ajt'l'lCLKS or CoNFKD- 

EHATION."^' 

AV'hcn the Ai-ticles of Confederation weie adoj)ted, which 
recognized the soycreignty (;f eacdi State, and admitted all on 
an equality, Rhode Island had attained an ackiK^wlcdged posi- 
tion, to wdiich her institutions and her education had prom])tcd 
her to aspire. 

* Arnold's Hist. R. T., vol. ii., p. .'{34. 



ANn l'KoVIDKN<nO I'LANTATIOiNTS. 27 

It is, lience, no iimttcr of snr])ris(>, that her peo])lc should 
chug to the Confederation^ wlicn all tlie other States had 
abandoned it, and that Rhode Ishmd shoukl be the last of 
the States to adopt the " Fcederal Constitution," whereon 
the unity of the Amei'ican nation was to be established for- 
ever. 

The prevailing tcrn})er of the people of Rhode Island was 
eminently conservative. They disliked change, and they were 
suspicious of all propositions to change, which emanated from 
a foreign source. They were, besides, remarkably prosperous, 
'^riie hai'bors of Narragansett, not only could float the navies of 
the world, but the ancient city of Newport saw her wharves 
thronged with ships; and the town of Providence had sent the 
first ship to the East Indies which had left an American port. 
In an article of the Newj^ort Mercury^ about this time, the 
growth of New York was noticed ; and the far-seeing writer, 
with evident comphicency, ventured the prculiction of congrat- 
ulation to th(^ Knickerbockers that New York would one 
day, far in the future, "rival New})ort in Commercial prosperity 
and greatness." The countr}^ })eople of Rhode Island were 
not distinguished Ibi- learning; but, on the contrary, were de- 
ficient and below the standard of their neighbors in Connecticut 
and Massachusetts. There were no Free Schools in Rhode 
Island. And one of the evils of the great principle of re- 
ligious independence, as })ushed to the extreme latitude of per- 
sonal jirerogative, was the foncied right of religious indifference; 
so that the ])ublic teachings of ministers of the Gospel were 
nowhere held in less re])ute. 

While in the early Cohuiial History we read of Mrs. Verin, 
who claimed the right to go as often as she pleased to Mr. Wil- 
liams's meeting, in spite of her husband (who, finally, was 
obliged to remove back into Massachusetts to preserve his mar- 
ital authority, that was jeoparded by the freedom of Rliode 
Island), on the other hand, at the close of the colonial period, 
the same principle of religious freedom, abused to licentious- 
ness and latitudinai'ianism, had brought forth, with the neglect 



28 ANN'ALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

of schools and cliurclies, a profound ignorance, both of things 
divine and of things earthly. 

This sad condition of the populace was the dark feature of 
the country towns, rather than of the towns on the coast. The 
towns of Provddcnce, Newi)ort, and Bristol were the residences 
of the merchants, the scholai's, and the mechanics of the State. 
They were fiimiliar with the ideas which governed the times, 
and understood the exigencies whicli demanded the develop- 
ment of the Uiuon of the Confederacy into the full tin/fij of the 
Constitution.* l^ut the people of the country towns could 
neither appreciate the crisis nor tolerate the necessity of surren- 
dering the dignity of the sovereignty of Rhode Island. And 
the country ruled the State. For, under tlie provisions of the 
Charter, the ancient village of Portsmouth sent as many Dep- 
uties to the Legislature as Providence ; and Newport sent more. 
Moreover, there were politicians, "giants in those days." If 
the people of Rhode Island knew nothing else, they were 
familiar witli local politics. And, one man more than any other 
in the State, though living in Providence, and mingling with the 
intelligent of the land, was the oracle of the country people, who 
obeyed his nod. 

Arthur Fenner, the leading politician at that time, and for 
many years the Governor, Avas the leader of the opposition to 
the Constitution of the United .States. When the proposal came 
from the Continental Congress to the several States to appoint 
Deputies to tlie Convention " to Revise the Articles of Confed- 
eration," Rhotle Island, throvigh Fenner's instigation, refused 
compliance. When that Convention, under the Presidency of 
George Washington, matured the Constitution, under which 
tliis Union, till of late, has prospered, Rhode Island, under the 
same bad influence, rejected it, by refusing to call a convention 
of the p('0])le, even to consider it. 

*-' The Representatives, under the Charter, were chosen every 
six months ; and the Legislature met every quarter of the year. 

* Letter of Gon. .Tames M. Varnum to Gen. "Washinj^ton, President of tlie Foed- 
eral Convention. — Ui'DIKe's Memoirs of the Rhode Maud Bar, pp. 300-30U. 



AND ^u()^■II)KN(.'l<; plantations. 20 

Not\vitlistan(Iiiii>- those oft-recurring- 0})portuiiitics, the ])iil)lic 
sentiment was steadfastly ojiposed to any cx})ression of fa^■()r to 
the new order ol' things jn'oposed. Kh()(U> Island ehuig to her 
traditions. South Carol iiui and the modern sehool of rebels 
ucver, until now, proclaimed State Rights and State Sovereignty 
like Rhode Island in 1789. And let me admire, with 3'ou, the 
Providence of Almighty God over our unitv as a nalion, which 
])ermitt(Ml Rhode Island to stand aloof from the Union till the 
f ivorable ojiportunity for amendment of the Foederal Constitu- 
tion had passed away. 

in the Congress of 1789 the amendments were ])roposed, lor 
the most part, which modified or ex})lained the provisions of 
the Constitution. The State of Rhode Island adopted the Con- 
stitution ]\ray29, 1790. It is said that there wei-e some amend- 
ments ])roposed, and lacked but one vote to pass them, wliieh 
w<nild ^havc reasserted State Rights, and almost State Sover- 
eignty, to the manifest detriment of the grand and fundamental 
law of national unity, which the Constitution was designed and 
ordained to establish. If Rhode Island had been represented 
in that Congress of 1789, her vote might have prevailed to 
reduce the Constitution to the impotcucy of the Confederation • 
or, at least, to connne its [)i-()visi()ns and impair its consistency 
so as to give color to the pretensions of the rebellious States, 
who are now ignobly striving, in war and blood, to overthrow 
the palladium of unity, of security, of ])rosperity, and of na- 
tional life.* 

Wherefore, in botli what she has done, and in what for a time 
through Divine Providence, she left undone, Rhode Island has 
been God's instrument in laying and in })erpetuating the foun- 

* For exaiiipio, Ww lirst AmondiiuMit which Uliode I>il:iiiti proposod as a condi- 
tion of hor acceding to tlio Constitution, was, " Tlio United States sliall guarantee 
to cacli State its sovereignty, freedom, and independence," etc. 9th. "That Con- 
f.';ress shall hvy no direct taxes witiiout the consent of the Legislatures of three- 
fourths of the States in the Union;" and so on to twenty-one amendments. Ex- 
trat'ted from one of the original .'{OD copies (preserved among the papers of the late 
Dr. Solomon Drowne)oftho " J-iiitijicaliono/ tlie ConMitatioii of the United States by 
the Convention of the State of Rhode Inland and Providence Plantations,^^ published 
by order of the Convention, May 20, 179t. 



30 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

elation of CoiistitutioiKil Deinocmtic Liberty, and also in pre- 
serviii^H' its (le\-eloped Cliai'ter to the posterities nnborn. 

But, to recur to the period of strife, when the Old and the 
New were stru<z'<.ding I'or mastery, and the mother of tlie sons of 
Rhode Island was in her travail. 

In .lime, 1788, the Convention of ISTew ITampshire adopted 
the Constitution, as the ninth State: after which, in accordance 
with its ])rovisions, it was to go into operation. 

The (riends of tlie Constitution in Rhode Island determined 
on celebrating tlie great event on the Fourth of July following, 
on Smith's Hill,* in Providence. But the country towns were 
in a ferment at the tidings ; and on the 3d of July the neigh- 
Ijoring woods were filled with armed men, resolved to prevent 
the celebration. The leaders of Ijoth parties conferred together, 
when it was agreed that the toasts and guns should be thirteen, 
instead of nine, in commemoration solely of Independence. On 
this condition the rui'al malcontents suffered the hilarity to pro- 
ceed, and even remained to shai'e a steak of the roasted ox, 
which was a jn'ominent feature of the festivities. This reunion, 
it is said, consideral)ly mollified the antagonism of the [)artiesby 
the magic of a good dinner: for the country peo})le, after fast- 
ing for twenty-four hours, were very hungry. But the friends 
of the Constitution, in Provi<lence, would not forego their right 
to celebi'ate the great event. " (;)n the next clay, July 5th, the 
news reached Providence that A'irginia had adopted the Consti- 
tution. Tliey rang the bells, and formed a procession supposed 
to contain one thousand persons, which paraded through the 
principal streets of the town. The artillery company fired a 
salute often guns, whit-h was answered by some larger cannon 
from Federal IlilLf 

On the 29tli ofJuly, they heard that New York had adopted 
the Constitution. Invention was taxed to give a significant 
type to this fresh celebration ; so, some genius of the day 

* Lan'l of Job Rmitli. at tltc head of the (,'ove, called " Federal Plain'' by the 
papers of the day. 

•j- Staples' Annals of Providenee, p. :;.';C. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 31 

devised tlie plan. The .south side of " tlic Great (Weyl)osset) 
Bridge" was decorated with eleven national flags, representing 
the States in the order of their vote of adoption, with the sev- 
eral majorities inscribed upon them. While the north side of 
the bridge was conspicuous with a standard of North Carolina, 
on a pole which leaned thirty degrees ; attached to wliich was 
also a banner, bearing the motto: "It will rise.'" And for 
Rhode Island the artist of the occasion furnished only a have 
pole, leaning forty-five degrees, and a motto : ^^ It/tode Lsland in 
hopes y 

Tiie Government of the United States, under the Constitu- 
tion, was organized in New York, March 4, 1789. This event 
rendered a session of the General Assembly necessary, as Judge 
Staples says, with qtiiet sarcasm, " to proride for the foi'eiqn 
relations and comvierce of the Empire of Rhode Island^ '^ 
But the Legislature was inexorable, and all petitions for the 
adoption of the Foederal Constitution were referred to a fu- 
ture session for consideration. Meanwhile, the merchants of 
the State, dreading that Congress w^ould pass laws against the 
commerce of Rhode Island, as of a foreign power, petitioned 
their forbearance and their mercy; whicli Congress freely be- 
stowed for a time, limited in tlie Act, But even in that peti- 
tion there is the ai)})carance of a threat to join themselves in 
alliance with some other nation. " We feel ourselves attached," 
sa3's the })etition, '■ by the strongest ties of friendship, of kin- 
dred, and of interest to our sister States, and we cannot, without 
the greatest reluctance, looh to any other quarter for those ad- 
vantages of commercial intercourse which we conceive to be 
natural and reciprocal between them and us." 

In November, 1789, North Carolina adopted the Constitution. 
Rhode Island was, thereupon, left alone, sovereign, independent, 
without alliances with any nation, and with no eonnnunity 
l)ound to her by either treaty or community of interest. The 
fondest vision of the stout old conservatives was realized. 
State Sovereignty loomed up in its huge proportions throu<di 

* Staples' Aunals of Providence, p. 33". 



32 A>-XAL5 OF RHODE ISLAN^D 

the delusive mirage of the political desert. The phantasm 
which had allured the islanders, in the self-complacency of their 
seclusion, for more than a century, now revealed its petty mag- 
nificence. Even the stolid countr\-man, and the determined 
partisan, and the desperate politician must have shrunk at the 
ridiculous spectacle. The film from the eye of stupidity, pre- 
judice, and stublx»mness began to dissolve, and the symptoms 
of clear sight revealed themselves at the next Legislature : still 
they jX)Stponed the question, but dared not to reject it. Finally, 
on Saturday, January- 17. 1790. the subject was debated in 
earnest till night. Both branches then adjourned until the next 
morning, which was Sunday. The bill from the Lower House, 
calling a Convention, was before the Senate (or Assistants, as 
thev were named in the Charter), when it appeared that one of 
the anti-Fcederal Assistants, who was also a minister of the Gos- 
pel, had left town to attend to his parish. This made a tie in 
the Senate, and threw the casting vote upon the Governor 
(John Collins ), v.'ho. though of the anti-Fc^deral party, yielded to 
the necessity, and decided for concurrence with the Lower House 
in calling a Conventiori. 

The excitement on that memorable Sunday in Xewjjort was 
intense : and while the churches vrere deserted, the streets were 
thronged with a rejoicing assemblage. At the following elec- 
tion. Governor Collins was defeated, in consequence of his vote 
for the Convention. The new General A.ssembly met at New- 
port on May oth. with Arthur Fenner as Governor. On the 
24th of May the Co^'VE^^TIO^' met at Xewpon. On the 26th 
of May. the motion to o.dopt t}'.>: Fosderal Constitution '0:0.8 
owe ltd. A test question was made to adjourn, and lost by nine 
votes. The motion to adopt the Constitution was then in order, 
and the iristrument was read, " The State House," says Ar- 
nold. •• could not contain the crowd of people assembled to 
witness the momentous proceedings. For more ample accom- 
modation, the Convention removed to the Second Baptist Meet- 
ing House, where, for three days, the great debate continued. 
A* five o'clock on Saturdav afternoon, tlje final vote was taken. 



AXD PROVIDENCE PLAXTATIOXS. 33 

Thirty-four members voted to adopt the Constitution, and thir- 
ty-two voted in the negative. A majority of two votes saved 
the people of Rhode Ishmd from anarchy, and the State from 
dismemberment."* The 29 th day of May was thus signalized, 
Sons of Rhode Island, as among the birthdays of the Republic, 
and as the day of the new birth of Constitutional Union in our 
State. 

As Mordecai M. Xoah. quoting from Peter Wilkins, said of 
the coal-mines of Rhode Island : •• They are the last place that 
will be consumed in the general conflagi*ation ;"f but, neverthe- 
less, the coal is actually preferred for smelting furnaces ; be- 
cause, when ignited, it bums with fen-ent heat till it is consumed 
to ashes : so Rhode Island coal is significant of Rhode Island 
character. It is difficult to excite, but, when inflamed, it burns 
with enthusiasm and endures until death. It is hard to light it 
up, but it is harder to extinguish it And as Rhode Island 
was the latest in adopting the Constitution of the United States, 
so she will be in ardor foremost to support, and the last to 
maintain, defend, and preserve the Union established bv the 
Constitution. 

This day, the 29th of May. was, perad venture, the date Ul'e- 
wise of the arrival of Rogee Williams off Slate BocJc at 
" What Ch^er,''X and the settlement of " Peovidexce Ptav- 
TATioxs'" in 1636. For the first record of Providence bears 
date the 16th of the 4th month (June, O. S.)§ And the " An- 
nals of Providence" relate that Roger "Williams and his five 
associates embarked in a canoe from Seekonk : and after exchane- 

* Arnold's Hist. R. I., vol ii.. p. 562. 

f Bryant, also, in his " Meditation on Rhode Island Coal" thus apostrophizes it: 
•• Yea, they did wrong thee foully — they who mocked 
Thy honest face, and said thou wouldst not burn ; 
Of hewing tliee to chimney pieces talked 

And grew protaue — and swore, in bitter scorn, 
That men might to thy inner caves retire. 
And there, unsinged, abide the day of lire." 
X This event has been commemorated in stirring verse by the Hon. Job Durfee. 
late Chief Justice of Rhode Island. — See his poem, - What Cheer; or. Roger Wil- 
liams in Banishment," Canto IX. 

§ Bartlett's Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. L, p. 13. 

3 



34 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

ino- salutations with the Indians at Slate Eock, in Seekonk River, 
thej sailed (or paddled) around Fox Point and up Providence 
River, where they landed in the month of Mcuj^ or early in 
June* Another record says it was " In the .^j^ring of 1636 ;"t 
it was not in June therefore. The 29th day of May, being the 
just middle date in the last week in May, and June not being 
in "the spring of the year," may accordingly be reckoned 
as the era of the founding of "Providence Plantations in 
JS^ew England." As the f()nnder named the place where he 
landed " Providence, in grateful remembrance of God's merci- 
ful providence to him in bis distress,":}: so we may, with filial 
gratitude, admire and praise the Providence of God, which 
guided the Commonwealth along the untried paths of j^olitical 
and religious experiments, and celebrate this day, the 29th of 
May, both as dutiful Sons of Rhode Island, and as loyal citizens 
of this Republic of the United States. 

Indeed, this day (the 29th of May) might be properly a day 
of sacred joy to all the world, for (in the exulting language of 
Mr. Bancroft, in his History of the United States), "the annals 
of Rliodc Island, if written in the s})irit of philosophy, would 
exhibit the forms of society under a peculiar aspect ; had the 
territory of the State corresponded to the importance and sin- 
gularity of the principles of its early existence, the tvorhl woidd 
have been Jdled ivith ironder at tlw j)henonuna of it a history.''^ 

What God may have in store for her to do, we will not proph- 
esy. But if the past be the oracle of the future ; if princi- 
ples be the seed of ripened conduct ; if the insignia of arms and 
the blazonry of standards be the proclamation of determined 
minds, then Rhode Island shall go on to glory in the van of 
advancing civilization, leading the nations in their march of 
democratic freedom. 

For the first act of equality and justice, the basis of demo- 

* Staples' Annals of Providence, p. 21. 
f Elton's Life of Roger Williams, p. :!8. 
X Ih.. p. .-JS. 
§ Barvoft's Ilistory U. S., vol. i., p. 380. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 35 

cratic government, was recorded in 1638 in tbe " Initial Deed" 
from Koger Williams of the lands which be purchased of Ca- 
nonicus and Miantinomoli, granting to bis thirteen (mystic num- 
ber) of fellow-citizens, " tbe equal rigbt and power of enjoying 
and disposing of tbe grounds and lands, wbicb were so lately 
given and granted by tbe two aforesaid sacbems to him.'"* 

And note tbe Records of Ebode Island in 1639, when it was 
ordered " tbat a Manual Scale sball be provided for tbe State ^ 
and tbat tbe Signett or Engraving thereof sball be a sheaf e of 
arrows bound up [with a snake's skin,f ] and in the Licss or Bond, 
this motto indented : Amor yixcet omnia.:}: And again, in 
1647, it was ordered, " tbat the Seale of tbe Province sball be 
an Anchor,"§ under the Charter which Roger Williams procured 
from Cromwell's Parliament, through the Earl of Warwick. ' 
And, finally, in 1661, it was ordered that tbe old seal of " the 
Anker," with the word " Hope" over the bead of it, shall be tbe 
" Seale of the Collony,"!J under the Royal Charter of Charles II. 

Is not tbe escutcheon of Rhode Island the demonstration of 
her principles, and of her detei-mination, and of her progi-ess ? 
She calls herself a "State"' as early as 1639. ^'- All-con que ring 
Love^' bestowing equality and justice, with ''■arrows" to defend 
the rights of all against invasion or insurgency ; tbe '^ Ane/ior" 
sure and steadfast, tbe emblem of fixedness and conservatism, 
fastening the ship of state to Wisdom in the past, while " Ilope" 
inscribed there, to indicate the land of refuge for tbe oppressed 
in conscience, and being lifted above all, j^oitits upward to 
Heaven for aid and inspiration, and beckons forward to a future 
wherein tbe Sons of Rhode Island, obedient to tbe instructions 
of their venerable mother, shall do further exploits on tbe arena 
of human life in coming ages, and emblazon fresh pages of Lib- 

* Initial Deed— Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, vol. i., p. 19. 

f R. I. ilistorical Coll., vol. iii., p. 11. Prince's N. E. Chronology, p. 200. 

X Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, vol. i., p. 11.'). The motto here referred to has 
been adopted, and inscribed on the banner of our fraternity, together Avith the 
" Anchor," and its legend "Hope," of subsequent seals. 

§ Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, vol. i., p. l.ol. A fac simile of Record. fjFl 

i lb., vol. ii., p. 41. ^^ 



r-:^ C': ihr Sr«n5 of Shcde Kkna the sttt.:-:'! oi Ler p'Tixcijles. 









■JCCX sso 



A2fD PROVIDESCE PLA>-TATIOXS. 37 

received his education,* till he went to Harvard University in 
1796 ; obtaining, as he himself acknowledged- the first impres- 
sion of painting, and recognizing his own rare capacity, firom his 
boyish intercourse with Maibone. 

The Fine Arts and Manu^ctures found congenial soil in 
Ehode Island. 

And what of Commerce ? Hexrt Collins, of Neuron. 
was known and styled as the Lorenzo de Medicis of Rlic-ie 
Island.f for his enterprise as a merchant, and for his patronage 
of the tine arts. JoHX Browx.:^ of Providence, a merchant 
prince, whose ventures compassing the globe, reached the East 
Indies, whither he dispatched the first American ship § that 
doubled the Cape of Grood Hope. Christophes CHAiiPLHS- 
and George Glbbs, of Xewport. these too. with others, were 
pioneers in commerce. 

In Law, Hf.xrt TTheatox. born and bre-i in Providence, 
composed the work on " Intemarional Law," which is now. at 
this time of controversy, a text book of the Cabinets of Europe 
and the United States. Mr. Harris, late minister of the United 
States in Japan, says that " the only foreign author whom the 
Japanese honor is Henry Wheaton : and the only book which 
they have translated, is Wheaton on International Law." Hi?; 
reports of the Supreme Court are. likewise, the masterftil expo- 
nents of the judgments under the Constitution. 

And a throng of publicists and lawyers rise up to memory. 
I stand not on the order of their coming. Sa^iuel Ward. 
some time Governor, was Chairman of the Committee of the 
TVhole in the Continental Consrress, when thev made choice of 



* The salubrious climate and good 3>Aoc^ of Newport broagh; many Carolinian 
boT? to Rhode Island. General James Hamilton \vas here taught. John 0. Cal- 
houn Teas at school in Newport, where he counedand afterwards married his eous- 
ic Floride Calhoun. Did he imbibe his norioos of State Sovereignty here, to 
impreiraate the Sontb with its virus ? If so. the fable of the easle. shot bv an 
arrow featlvred with a plume from her own wing, is >"erifi^ by ihe existing 
Southern Rebellion, instigated by the teachings of Calhotm. 

f Lener of Pr. Waterhouse. in R. I. Hist. ColL vci ir_ p. 4-L 

* Hague's Historical Discourse, p. 102. IS2. 
§ The '• General Washinsrton."' 



38 ANNATES OF RHODK ISLAND 

George AVashington "to cominiind all tlic Contineiilal fon^es 
raised, or to be raised, for the defenee of American liberty."* 

James Mitciikll Varnitm, i-eno\vncd for o]ofi[uenco at the 
bar, and for inilitarv talents: lie was Colonel of the Kentish 
Guards, tliat fiii'iiishcd, as from a military school, twenty-four 
olfieers for the Continental army, of whom the orderly sei-geant, 
General Greene, was one. Having served in the Army of the 
Revolution as Brigadier-General, a,nd in the ( 'ontincnial Con- 
gress, Varnum was the first Fcederal Judge of the Northwest- 
ern Territory.f 

Benjamin Bourne, the gi-and old champion of the Fo3deral 
Constitution, who renewed the motion in the Convention for its 
adoption, which was eai-ricd ; I'iikodore FoSTKit, th(> (ii'st Sen- 
ator, i-enowned alike in law and statesmanship; David J I ow- 
Ei.L, AV^ii.LiAM Brai)1<'()ri), and Samuel Eddy:}: made their 
mark on the age. Bkn.jamin irAZARi),§ IIenkyBulu, Samuel 
W. I^RrixiiiAM (first Mayor of Pi-ovi(h'nce), as scholars and law- 
yers, are famous. And among the men of this next generation, 
Nathanikl Searle, Tristam Burges, and JonN Wiiii'I'lk 
were a triumvirate of ])ari-isters towdiom Judge Story was accus- 
tomed to yiehl iiomage, saying to the foimer, " You know, sir, 
as mucli law as T." But, towering above all, in sweet benignity 
of as])ect, -Iames 1>urrill || was conspicuous and celebrated for 
both knowledge of law, acutdiess of intebect, retentiveness of 
memory, grace of diction, eloquence in ])leading, earnestness in 
convicti(jn and hdelity to Ins clients, with elegant taste and sim- 
plicity of manners, and purity of character. As a statesman, his 
sliort career in Congress as Senator, evinced broad, national 
views of public policy, and his lamented death in Washington, 
like that of his friend Lowndes, of South Carolina, in the ripe- 
ness of prime manhood, hushed the voices of beautiful wisdom, 
and plunged Itoth North and South in grief It is well that his 

* BiirtlcU's R. T. Col. Reeonl^^, vol. vii., ])]>. '>2U-:,:i2, nok. 
f Updike's Mcnioiis oftlio R. L Bar, pp. 145-2;!.'',. 
\ (ioddard's Address, p. .58. 

s /''., I-. <;-i. 

i Ih., p. 57. 



AND IMiOVinKNCK PLANTATIONS. 39 

grandson* is our poet to-night, to sing of Rhode Ishmd in liis 
glowing verse. 

The Stiite of Rhode Island has given Jonathan RussELL,f 
the erudite Henry Wiikaton,:}; and the stately William Hun- 
ter! t'O Diplomacy, as Representatives of our country at foreign 
courts. 

In Natural Science, Dr. Benjamin Wateriiouse,| of New- 
port, Professor in Rhode Island College and in Harvard Uni- 
versity, has an Eui-opean fame. In 1800 (tlie year Ibllowing 
its publication in England, and four years after its discovery by 
Dr. Jenner), he brought Vaccination to the United States, and 
a}iplied it first in Rhode Island. Dr. Solomon Drowne,^ dis- 
tinguished for extensive researches in Botany and. Materia 
Medica, of which sciences he was Professor in Brown Univer- 
sity, was one of the first to encourage the scientific study of 
Agriculture, and did much to develop a taste for floriculture 
and landscape-gardening throughout the State. Amos Atwell, 
the blacksmith, Colonel in the Revolutionary Army and Legis- 
lator, was the founder and first elected president of one of the 
earliest Mechanics' Associations.** Nicholas Brown,! f was 
the munificent eneourager of learning. Isaac Senter, Levi 
Wheaton, and Usher Parsons have contributed, with Wil- 
liam HiiNTER, the elder, to medical science. 

* George William Curtis. 

\ Envoy ExtraonJinary to Ghent, witli John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and J. 
A. Bayard. KNiaiix's Ififf. of Eat/land, vol. viii.. p. 19. 

:}: Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to Berlin. — Ilome.s of the 
American Statesmen, pp. 449-46!). " The most able representative," said the ven- 
erable Albert Gallatin to the Hon. John Russell Bartlett, "of the American Gov- 
ernment abroad, during the last forty years." 

§ Minister to Brazil. || Arnold's Hist., R. I., vol. i., p. 52:?, note. 

T[ Biographical Memoir by the Rev. T. S. Drowne. — Sketches of R. I. Physi- 
cians, p. 25. New York during the American Revolution, p. 76. 

** The Mechanics' Society's Hooms, and tiie Roger Williams Hall, stand on tlio 
site of Amos Atwell's house. 

ff Brown University is indebted to him for the greater part of its buildings 
and endowments, and hence bears his name; — an Institution, the Presidents and 
Professors of whi(;h have been an honor to learning, among whom may be men- 
tioned Maiming, Maxcy, Elton, Wayland, Caswell, Sears, etc. — Prof. Ganmieirs 
article in "Am. Journal of Education," June, 1857. Pres. Wayland's Commemo- 
rative Discourse, Nov. 3, 1841. Judge Pitman's Alumni Address, Sept. 5, 184;i. 



40 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

Sliall we step into tlie garden of Literature and Divinity? 
Eliodo Island points to William G. Goddard, as the elegant 
writer and hdlcK lettre>< professor; who for years made the 
" Rhode Island American"' news})aper, the model of good Eng- 
lish, and sound logic, and just criticism of men and things, to 
the Press of the United States. She points to William Ellery 
Channing for all that is chaste in rhetoric, and earnest in ex- 
pression, and persuasive in eloquence. She tells us of Tristam 
B URGES, and Asher Robbins, as masters of the classics. She 
rejoices in George Burgess, Bishop of Maine, as ])oet and 
theologian ; and in Thomas Church Brownell,* Bishop of 
Connecticut, and Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States. 

Would you now emerge from the academic shades, and 
leave the flowers of thought, for the arena of stern War — 
Rhode Island turns to her son Oliver Hazard Perry, the vic- 
tor of the British Fleet on Lake Erie, in 1813, just fifty years 
ago. His ships, when he, and the Rhode Island boys with him, 
arrived at the shores of the lake, were tree^, growing in the 
primeval forest; but which their lusty arms and tried skill 
fashioned and equipped into vessels of war. His personal 
valor and calm judgment in quitting the disabled Lawrence, 
and rowing through fire and shot to the untouched Niagara,f 
and bearing down in her, breaking the enemy's lines with 
double broadsides ; plucking victory, for the first time, from a 
fleet of " the proud Mistress of the Seas," has won for the 
name of Perry, continuously for half a century, the spontaneous 
praise of a thankful nation ; who, in Congress assembled, 
adopted his children as the people's orphans, and enrolled him 
among the country's heroes. His piety dictated the ofiicial an- 
nouncement to the Secretary of the Navy, that " It lias pleased 
the Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a signal 



* a lineal dosoondant of Benjamin Church, the hero of King Philip's T\'ar. 

\ This passage of I'erry is portraj'ed in the magnificent painting by Powell, 
ordered by the State of Ohio, and now being finished in the city of iS'ew 
York. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 41 

victory over tlie enemies on this lake.""* But tlic haste and 
ardor of the hour of battle, prompted him to indite, on a leaf 
of a memorandum book, resting on the top of his naval cap, a 
phrase like that of Caesar's, and shall live as long: " We have 
7net the Enemy^ and they are ours.'''' 

And in humbler rank, but with as heroic devotion, the 
Navy, in the second War of Independence, exulted in "Wil- 
liam Henry Allen, the valiant son of Ehode Island, whose 
death on the deck of the Argus, amidst the shouts of the 
victory he had helped to win, subdued the rejoicing of the 
nation. 

In the war with Mexico, as colleague of General Scott, Chief 
of the Army, the Commander-in-chief of the Naval Forces was 
Commodore Matthew Calbreth Perry, born in Newport, and 
one of the most filial sons of Ehode Island. The crowning 
act of Commodore M. C. Perry, which has created an era in the 
world, and has made his name historic among the nations, is 
his opening of Japan. That sequestered people, for centuries, 
had embargoed all political communication and commercial in- 
tercourse, except with the Dutch on the small island of Desima, 
in the port of Nangasaki. But the acquisition of California 
made manifest a new route to China and the East, by ocean 
steamers. The islands of Japan, fixed midway in the route, 
and containing coals, rendered the opening of her ports a com- 
mercial necessity, besides promising fresh rewards to com- 
mercial enterprise. 

The prudence and sagacity displayed in this great political 
success of recovering an Empire to fellowship with the fimiily 
of nations, while acknowledged by all men, is particularly 
demonstrated in the ofiicial letter published by Congress, and 
in the narrative of the expedition, written by Commodore 
Perry himself The language of the narrative is remarkable 
for its Saxon strength and clearness. Its style is Addisonian in 
elegance and purity. It was my good fortune to read the 

* Inauguration of the Perry Statue at Cleveland, 0., Sept. 10,1860. Perry's 
Dispatches, p. S7. 



42 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

maniiscnpt in Commodore Perry's handwriting; and wlicn I 
asked liim, "why lie liad spoken of himself in tlie third 2^<^r- 
Kon^''"' he replied that "he covdd not endure the egotism of the 
/;"' and when he I'ound himself, in consequence, tempted to sup- 
press the truth of history, and when he reflected that his country- 
men had a right to know the facts exactly as they occurred, he 
resolved to write in the tJii/'d person with just freedom, and to 
ask some friend to edit the volumes, as the quas! historian of 
the expedition. And in this aspect they are published to the 
woi-ld. Such was the modesty of the author, matched l)y his 
integrity as a man, his accomplishments as a writer, his braver}^ 
as an officer, his untiring industry as a public servant, his 
loyalty to the whole country, and his love to his native Rhode 
Island. One of the happiest hours of his useful life, was in 
receiving, after a long absence, the public approbation of the 
State, through her official organs, in the presence of his towns- 
men in Ncwpoi't. And his last wish, expressed to me, was, 
to be buried by his father and mother and brother, in the 
ohl burial ground, to mingle his dust with his native soil 
lie even chose his grave there. But New York, the com- 
mercial emporium, has claimed his body, and tlie country 
his fame. Yet Rhode Island will ever cherish his memory as 
her son. 

And shall T refrain from naming, because he was m^^ brother, 
a son of Rhode Island, John Rogers Vinton, who at Vera 
Cruz, after having advanced to tlie walls to repel any sally of 
the foe, and while commanding the trenches on the opening of 
the fire, on the iirst da}' of the siege, fell the foremost sacrifice 
on the altar of his countiy, in the trium})hal march of the army 
from Vera Cruz to Mexico ? By permission of the War De- 
partment, he spent many months in drilling the citizens of 
Rhode Island, after "The Dorr War," and was signally' instru- 
mental in acquainting them with the military art, which they 
have so well put in practice during the present rebellion. His 
native State of Rhode Island honored his name in her Legisla- 
tive annals; procured his body, ordained a puljlic funeral, and 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 43 

lodged liis remains in the soil lie loved so well and truly.* 
And had his life been spared to bis country, General Scott has 
said, " Jolin R Vinton would have borne an early and })romi- 
nent part in commanding the armies of the Union and Consti- 
tution, "f 

All these men grew up under the old charter and the Foede- 
ral Constitution, inhaling the spirit which they inculcated of law 
and order, of conservative prudence and progressive ardor, of 
Loyalty and Patriotism. Like the Roman Matron, our dear 
mother leads forth her sons, proclaiming, " These are my 
Jewels." There are many others in her casket, but she reserves 
her wealth, as a prudent mother should. How many are here 
present, strayed or purloined for the benefit of New York, I 
wall not say. 

But considering the narrow bounds of our State, and its 
small population, I am bold to challenge the display of more 
shining lights, who have irradiated the pathway of our country's 
progress, in the various walks of Peace, among the Manufac- 
tures, the Fine Arts, the Sciences, the Literature, the Professions 
of Law and. Medicine, the employments of Statesmanship and 
Diplomacy, the calling of Divinity, and the enterprises of Con: - 
merce, or on the Arena of War l>y Sea and on Land, than 
Rhode Island has contributed to our country's advancing great- 
ness. 

It is said, facetiously, in Rhode Island, that her people are 
less civilized the nearer you approach to Connecticut. But 
Connecticut retorts that she has observed the same phenomenon 
in her border population. As to Massachusetts, since they 
banished Roger Williams, and sent a force to seize him at Re- 
hoboth to carry him back to England, and he crossed the 
Seekonk River to escape them, the sons of Rhode Island are 
suspicious and jealous of much intercourse with them, except 
in the way of supplying them with just sentiments of tolera- 

* Buried in Swan Point Cemeterj^, in June, 1847, beneath an appropriate monu- 
ment, surmounted by the unexplodcd sliell witli wliich lie was struck. 

f See KoTE V. — Letter of Hon. Henry B. Anthony, U. S. Senator of R. I. 



44 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

tie)!!. But, on tlic soiitliern Ijoundaries of tlie State, the sons of 
Rhode Ishuid hold ghid I'ellowship with the ocean^ whose waves 
chip their hands all round its coast, and whether resting on its 
calm bosom, or lifted in its outstretched arms, the winds of 
neaven are sure at last to bring them on the ocean into com- 
munion with the world. Rhode Island is small, but 23roud. 
" Which is larger, Delaware or Rhode Island ?" said a tall 
Hoosier to a Rhode Island lady;"- who replied, scanning him 
from hat to l)Oots, " We do not^ In Rhode Island, 'measure 
hy the foot, hut hy the head."'' Rhode Island is small, but very 
important. An anecdote is current there. f interesting to the 
philosopher as a matter of faet, and illustrating how small 
agencies produce vast effects ; or how a Cranston man produced 
the war of 1812, with England. 

James Rhodes, of Providence, owned a farm in Cranston. 
Ilis neighbor, Reuben Perry, owned a pig. The pig broke into 
Rhodes's "clover meadow," and did damage. Rhodes sent two 
boys to chase the pig, and the pig died from overheating. Perry 
sued Rhodes for the price of the pig, and employed James Bur- 
rill as his counsel. James Burrill gained the case, and Rliodes 
was mad, and Avowed revenge on James Burrill. An election oc- 
curred in 1811, for Senator in the Congress which declared 
war with Great Britain ; James Burrill, a Foederalist, was a can- 
didate ; wdiom Rhodes procured Judge Mathewson, of Scitu- 
ate, a representative to the General Assembly, to oppose, although 
both Rhodes and Mathewson were of the same party with Bur- 
rill. Burrill was defeated l)y one vote. Jeremiah B. Howell, a 
democrat, who was elected, was in favor of the war ; and the war 
was declared Ijy Congress by one vote in the Senate.:}: If Bur- 
rill had been elected to the United States Senate, there would 
have been no declaration of war. So the controversy of the 
Rhode Island })ig jn'oduced the war with England. 

'• Tall oaks from little acorns <>,tow, 
Large streams from little fountains How." 

* Mrs. Joseph L. Tillinghast. 

f See Note VI. — Letter of George C. Arnold. 

X See latter part of Note V. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 45 

I rniglit suggest further examples of Rhode Island influence 
on the country.* Let your orator to-night not be charged with 
suppressing truth, or with exalting overmuch the civilization of 
Ehode Island. 

The inllnence of the old Charter, we have seen, produced in- 
tense conservatism in the sons of Ehode Island. This disposi- 
tion was felt as an evil in the oft-defeated attempts to establish 
public schools. When a society of benevolent ladies, in Provi- 
dence set themselves to establish Schools in Foster and East 
Greenwich, they were much hindered by the suspicion of doing 
something dangerous to the freedom of the inhabitants. Pos- 
terity owes it chiefly to the zeal and pertinacity of Joseph L. 
TiLLiNGHAST and John HowLANDf for the system of public 
schools Avhich now honors and elevates her })eople. 

Dr. Hubbard, of Pomfret, Conn., used to illustrate the plain 
fare of the Rhode Islanders on the border, worthy of the hard 
living of our brethren of the secession army. Attending a pa- 
tient in Rhode Island, he stopped at the tavern in Chepachet, 
where he beheld against the wall a huge pile of what seemed 
hoards. He asked the landlady what they were for, who re])lied 
that "they were cold johnnycakes for the Town Council, who 
were to meet there the next day." What would our city fathers 
say to such fare ? 

Without doubt, an envious person might find other matters 
to blame or ridicule in Rhode Island ; but, so likewise, he would . 
see the spots on the sun, or the flaw in the diamoncL Charity, 
like the bee, sucks honey from every herb. Envy, like the 
spider, extracts venom from the sweetest flower. 

Rhode Island ! there she stands ! with her histoiy before the 
world, her sons and daughters by her side. Her record, under 
the first Charter of human liberty, framed by men's hands, is 
her sufficient eulogium. She is not perfect. She is human. 
Slie claims no more. 

* Rliode Island clam-bakes are growing; into an institution. Perhaps T ought to 
add tliat John B. Chace was always great on advertisements, and the Corypheus 
of modern trumpeters of their wares. 

f Life and Recollections of John Howland, by E. M. Stone. 



46 



ANN.VT.s OK unonio isr.ANi> 



'Wc now enter llie I'imiiIIi period -when '' lli;it V(MUM';il»le C'liar- 
ler" e\|iii-i'(l, in IS-I-"., :iiiil ie\i\cil in the e.\i^li^;^■ Coiistit iitioii. 

I*'e\v liei'soiis e;iii eoiiil ireheml th;it: el'isis. It VVIIS the liisl. 
orsjani/etl sti'iiiiLile ol' i;i(he;il (h'ni()ei-:ie\ with eon^erviil i \'e (h'- 
moeraey, ol' mass nieetiii'j; with eoiistit iited ;_'(iveiiiiiieiit, of an- 
ai"eh\' with hiw and oi-der. It was, iheri'l'ore, a tiial of the 
stahihtN iifeonstiliilitinal fiecddin ajjaiiist the assauHs of ])as- 
sioiiiite will. 

'The lardinni prineiple of pohlie;d wisdom ineoi'porated in 
the ( 'h;il'tei' of Ivhixle Ishind, \\;isthis: that. " TheN \v ho owned 
the Soil of the State, should l'o\ ei'n the State/' hlvery \'oter 
posscssetl the freehold (pi;dlli<'at.ion of lauded estali', woi'lh, at 
least, $Ui-t, or was the eldest, sou of such freeholder. An intei'- 
est in till' soil was the pled'jc of attaehuieul to the State. Mveii 
under the ('oust it utiou of IS-J-'t, no loreiioi horn eiti/.eu may 
\(ite, unless he owns A///r/. The pro\ ision of l.uided pi-operty 
fpnililieation in persons (TiL'ihle for oHiee, \\;is universal and 
a..\i<un;itie in the lirst const it nl ions of t he old t hirtcen Slates. It 
was a fund;uuent;d ;ind uU(pieslioue(| L'liarantee of sound le!i;is- 
latiou. A propei't\' (pi;dilie;it ion, person;d (H' re:d, w;is deemed 
essenti:il in lioth voters :ind oHieers hv the filhei'S of the [{e- 
pul)lie. Mr. flellersou, in his " Notes on \'irLMni;i," has n:iuied 
two thiiiLjs as ruinous to represent;iti\'e t'oveiiimenl, \i/,. : J'"ti;sf^ 
iiniversid snllVau'e; Sicoiid^ the faeilil-v of naturalization. The 
one iidmits forei;juei's, nufimiliai' with free institutions, to \ott', 
iind to he elected to ollice ; the other givCS seopi! to the m;iehi- 
nations of dema^iouues. 

Mvery State had amended its eonstit ution, eidar^^inj^- suHVage 
and hreaking down the hai'i'iers against dcm.'ieoguism, e.\ee])t 
Kliode Islaixl. The new St;ites came into the I'niou with eon- 
stit ulu)us more and more uulnnited m provisions of sidfrage. 
'V\\(', huge wave of radical demoei'acy had overspread the land, 
obliterating the eonser\ at i\ e wayniarks of the oi'iginal repuMi- 
canisin ; and Kliode Island was linn as her ro(d<s, surrounded 
1)V the deluge of waters. Meaiiwhih; the prodigious increases of 
her eotton manufactures had attracted a large foreign |)ojinla- 



ANIi n;ii\ IDMNCI', I'l.AN lA rioNH. 



47 



tioll. Villii;/('M ,s|)i';iii;' np, towns ;.'i'i'W in nnnilirr.' ;ini| in 

VVcnIlli; |i<illl Icl.-illS lii'i.MII III li;il',in"nr ihr | io| il||;ii-r. 'riic-piM 

vini<in I if |(i iniii'M'iiit nif w'li.i :i Iriiliirr m iJic ('linrli-r niH'iinj^c- 
llinl Willi olir A iniM ICin lll: I ll nl ImM;:, .IIH I I lir |n\ ;il loni'cr ol' llic 
(Miiirli'i' vv;i;-i ;i |ii|>ir Im' |iir|i|i||(c ;iiii| di niiiiri:il k in. A I Icii^ulli 
il lirvv |iitllt ii'iil [iliilti: <i|ili V VVIIS I il'i i;ic| u •( | ||i;ii : 1 1 ll'i ;i;.<(! VVIIH 11 
naliifiil ri}^;lil', -iihI llml ;i iii.'ijni'il y nC llir |ii-ii|i|f (inc(in;ii;-li'iitJy 
<'\('liii li 11,1'' wiiini'ii ;iimI rill |( Ircn I, iiii^ulil,, hy vuli' in inniii nnu!!,- 
in-^;, ii\ I'll mil :iimI .-m hi In lair llir t'xiHl/ni^' fi'* iv<Tniiicnl. TliiH WilH 
;iii;ii'i'li\ , I'l ir till' |ii'i i|i|r 111' |( ( niiirnivv nii;jlil, wil li ciin.il |irM|iiii'- 
l,y, ov crlln'ovv \\\v, };;()V«'riiiiit'iil. nl In il.iy. 

Ill Miiy, JH-ll, II. iiinHH nici'liiii' in Nivv|miiI i:iIIiiI .'i (•(invrn- 
lion lo IV.'inir :i, " I'l-oplf's < 'oiistitiiliun ;" uiiil i.n lliis iirvv 
diicliini' IIh- |Mi|Hil:irr v<ili'<l ;i :^|lll nmis I'l in <i niniiil , ;iiiil li;iinr<l 
;i, ;-.() (•:ill<'(| ( 'oiislll illli 111 i n ( >rl nlitr, |.'-v||. 'Tin- I ,i-;'l: l;il illr nl" 
Rlntdc ImIiuhI IijuI nlitM'ly (nilrrnl ;i, ( 'i iii\ ml n in |i i IV;inic ,i hiw- 
I'll! ( liin.sl iliilimi, in Nnvrinlii'i', lM|.|, wliirli, <in ln'iii" liiiliiiiil lii| 
jo llic ricrlnildci.s, w:i,s rfjc.'ird in Maivli, iHlJ. 'I'lir old IMmdc 
l.slaiid H|iiiil. w:iH ill, ImhI, iirun.'.i'd In drji'.il, iJir ,M|ini'iiin:- ;'i(\ crii 
lin'iil, :ind Wa(;KI{ WkKIiMN |iindi'nlly di'iliin-d liiiiiy ( ii i\ mii ir 
lindi'l llir riii|i|r'.S ( !oll.s|lllll.|iill, Vvlirll T IH » M AS VV li .MuN |)n|(|(* 

hruvt'iy liKil-. lIn- lend. hmr vviiH .'i Mcliohir, .-i ;.icnl,lrin;iii, :i |)lii- 
Ios<»|iImt; IiiiI, ;i di;s;i|i|iiiinl,id niiiii. On lln-.'id ol' M.iy, IH12, 
till' :|iniiiiiiH jjovci'iiiiKtnl, w;iM (»r;.';iiii/cd, wilJi hmr ;i,s (lov- 
(•riiur. I)nri',s I ,c;'i;-.l;il,iir<' w;iM Hnll'i ifd In riiii\ini' in tli"' new 
lull iidi\ f in I'll ivnli'iici- ; ;iiid mi llir IMJi d;iv ol' \\:.\ m|.'iini/ii- 
limi, it ;-ri/,c(| tlic <.'iin:; ol' llir yXilillciy ( V)ni|):iii_y , iii;iri'li('d ill 
o|irii d;iy ;ilmi;_' the HtrcclM, tlirmi'di iJiioiiiji'S ol' mi Iml cil i/.cliH, 
to tJic '' Al;iiiii I'oil;" ;iiid I liii:iliiird lo ; ci/.i- ||ir .Sliilc ;ii';,rn;il 
tli;il, iiiylil. 'rii;it, iHlli of Miiy, iJS-l^, \\:i:sii, d:iik niid diMiiinl 
(•|)oc|i ol' mil- liistoiy. TliiH was t.litt rrarl'iil cri.siH. Hnl, llio 

citi/cilH of i'l'o\ idrncc ni.slird lo t In- ;ii; m.-d. Slll-LIN' AN l)<»l(l(, 
tin- lionoird I'iilli'T ol' till' elm r of llir in: iiiyriil,-, joinrd iIk; 
loyal li;ind ol' I In- dijrndri., nj' I In- Sl.al.i-. < >ld inni and y<'niii^ 

* Dim Kiuh'h I.iI' I'H'I 'rumri ol Kmii, |i|i, (ill, 'iH-l -2'.»:i. 

I At I'lilily'rt r>iiiil, liiiovvii un Kullrr'rt Ii'ihiihIij', m1iii'cjUii«Ii'<>>''iI \>) Urn. 



48 ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND 

men sliiit themselves in the arsenal, determined to defend it 
with their lives. 

The faction of Dorr, tlie yonnger, dragged the artillery which 
they had stolen, to the arsenal plain, and put it in battery, — son 
against father. It was too fearfnl an experiment, and the insur- 
gents quailed. In the morning, therefore, they estal)lished 
themselves on Federal Hill, rent by conflicting counsels. The 
Legislature of the Charter had just adjourned in Newport. 
The Governor (King) sent messengers everywhere, and rallied 
the military forces of the towns. In Newport, at midnight, the 
bells tolled the tocsin. People rose from their beds and prayed. 
The young men hastily put on tlieir soldiers' uniform and gath- 
ered together to go to battle. Mothers and sisters, in tears, em- 
braced them, and fathers grimly gave them their blessing. At 
dawn of day the steamboat took the Ancient and Honorable Ar- 
tillery Company, as it was supjjosed, to death. Every town, in 
like manner, responded to the summons of the Government, and 
sent their armed men to Providence. But here the woful lack 
of military science was made manifest. Who should command 
the forces ; how to attack the enemy ; what to do and when to 
do it, were questions not readily answered. The foe was on 
Federal Hill, with artillery loaded with slugs from machine 
shoi)S, posted at the head of a deep cut (now Atwelhs Avenue), 
to defend the passage. William Blodget, late Colonel of the 
Providence Cadets, was chosen to command the troops. He 
knew no artifices of strategy, nor comprehended the merit of 
flank movements ; but, taking counsel of his l)rave heart, he 
marched the little army, the Newport artillery at the head, in 
column, up the causeway, in face of the cannon's mouth.* One 
discharge would have dealt death to hundreds of those Rhode 
Islanders. The very intrepidity of that rash movement ap- 
palled the leaders of the insurgents. They dreaded to spill the 
first bloocL But not so did some of their infuriated followers 
feel. WillkDii P. Dean (known as "one-arm Bill"), who held 

* Prvfldence Journal AuA Evenimj Chronicle, May 18 and lit, 1S42. Also Xcw 
York Journal of Commerce, vol. xxvi., No. 5431, May 20, lS-i2. 



AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. 40 

the lighted linstock, was pinioned, it is said, in the arms of 
Marshal Burrington Anthony, as he was about to fire ; and 
then, in desperation, attempted to throw the burning fuse upon 
the cannon. That delay was propitious to the loyal cause, and 
fatal to the rebels. Colonel Blodget's column gained the hill, 
and seized the guns, and scattered the insurgents. 

Dorr's Legislature was now fugitive, like his army, lie left 
the State, and sought for allies from the notorious Empire Club, 
of New York, Meanwhile, the women of the insurgent party 
were furious.* They upbraided the men for cowardice ; they 
held secret meetings to provide cartridges for future use, and to 
devise methods for fresh attempts. 

The loyal men of the State began in earnest to prepare for 
civil war. All the common occupations of life were suspended. 
The State was about to be invaded. The assistance of the Gen- 
eral Government, in Washington, was invoked. At length the 
storm burst. In the last week in June, 1842, Dorr returned 
with an armed escort, chiefly of the " Spartan Band," of New 
York — political scallawags — headed by Mike Walsh, attended 
by a Colonel Hopkins, keeper of the Pewter Mug, with the fre- 
quenters of that low porter-house ; with which force he in- 
trenched himself at Acote's Hill, Chepachet. In this desperate 
effort Dorr was joined by other desperate men, armed with 
pikes, scythes, fowling-pieces, a battery of six cannon — in all, 
nearly 1,000 men, combined in foul conspiracy to overthrow, by 
force of arms, the regular government of Rhode Island. 

The whole State, as one man, arose in martial guise. Rhode 
Island was a camp, Iler arsenals had been filled ; her men 
trained ; her sentries were placed in the streets of Providence ; 
and the studies of the University were suspended ; her wealth 
and her skill had been voluntarily subsidized, till she presented 
a front that dismayed the invaders. The whole number of the 
loj^al forces, infantry, artillery, cavalry (two companies), and 
staff actually in service, is estimated at 3,800. 

* Mrs. Catharine R. Williams, authoress of the Lives of Barton and Olney, has 
related to me, with professions of compunction, the violence of the insurgent 
women. 



50 ANNALS OF KUODE ISLAND 

On Saturday, 25tli June, a meeting* was held of the sons of 
Rhode Island resident in New York, at which it was resolved 
that all, who could, should proceed at once to Providence to aid 
in vindicating the lionor and maintaining the laws of their na- 
tive State. Quite a number left that evening, and assembled 
on the following morning, with several of the citizens, at the 
City Hotel in Providence, and formed the Company of " lihodc 
Island Carbiniers," of which James N. (_)lney was Captain. 

^riie sons of Rhode Island in other cities and towns, hastened 
home to otfer themselves for the defence of the State, and were 
immediately enrolled among the forces. 

'l^lie loyal troops marched on Chcpachet, and the enemy fled 

away. The following announcement of victoryf was ])ul)lished 

1)V Cencral William Uibbs McNeil, commander-in-chief in 

Pi'ovidcuce : 

'•Orders No. 54, Headquarters, Jum 28t!i, 1842. 
'• The villago of Chcpachet and furt of the insurgents, were .stormed at a quarter 
before eight o'clock this morning, and taken, witli aliout one hundred prisoners, by 
Colonel William W. Brown. Xone killed ; none ■wounded. Dorr lias fled. 

By order of Major-(!eueral MrNKIL. 
K LiSHA Dyeh. Jr., Adjt.-General." 

Dorr was im])eached for treason and coniined in prison. 'V\\q. 
Stiitc then adopted the present Constitution in 18-13. 

"The Dorr War" was the school which has made Rhode 
Island and her soldiers foremost in suppressing the present great 
rebellion. It (pienehed in shame and ignominy the flames of 
j'adit'al democracy, which were threatening the direst calamities 
to the free republican institutions, not only of Rhode Island, but 
of the United States. As in bombardment, the safest place is 
wluM-e a cannon ball has passed through, so Rhode Island is 
heneefoi'th the place of security against the assaults of faction 
within the battlements of Law and Order, '^fhe noble determi- 
nation of the citizen soldiers of Providence, and the gallant yeo- 
]nen of Rhode Island, amid the confusion which reigned in that 
civil war, has been celebrated in beautiful and spirited verse, in 
the lyric poem of George Burgess.:}; 

* Tlie oilicers, Randall H. Greene, Chairman, and John 11. Ormsbee, Secretary, 
f Providence Morniwj Courier^ Vol. VII., No. 57, July 19, 1842. 
X Seo Note VII. — Bishop Burgess' Poom on Rhode Island, in 1842. 



AND ruOVIDKNOK PLANTATIONS. 51 

Sons of Kliotlc Ishiiul ! The last era in llic annals of onv State 
is the present epoeli of civil war. 1 shall not propliesy. We 
are making history now. It must sullice to sa}' that the Oov- 
ernor (Sprague*) of Rhode Island dispatched the first telegraphic 
message to tlie President of the United States, oiferingthe whole 
strength of the State to maintain the Foederal Constitution, and 
union of the country, against the rel)els, M^ho have lifted unholy 
hands against the best government in the world. Although 
Massachusetts dispatched men, wlio made the 19th of A})ril, 
1861, memorable for the first blood of the war for the Union, 
shed in Baltimore on the same calendar that commemorates the 
first Massachusetts blood on the 19th of April, 1775, at Lexing- 
ton, in the war for Inde})endence, yet Uiiode Ishmd was second 
in the field ; while showing herself Pallas-armed, she was the 
FUi'&T fully equipped and readij for i'lnmediate servlce.\ lihode 
Island has contributed soldiers to suppress this rebellion of the 
slave States, in proportion greater than any of her loyal sisters, 
except Kansas. The ratio of Khode Island soldiers to popula- 
tion, is 1 to llrVo 7 of Massachusetts, 1 to 17^^;; 5 and of Maine, 
1 to 20^V1: 

Her BURNSIDE§ has led her forces|| to battle at Bull \l\m ; and 
to victory at Roanoke, and Newbern, and Fort Macon ; while 
her RoDMAN,^[ and Slo(;um,'^"* and other soldiers have sealed 
their patriotism in death. Her sons, with their swoi'ds, arc 
carving immortal historyff on the fortresses of rebellion, and 
diffusing, with their bullets, the seeds of a free civilization in 
the plantations of slavery. 

* See Note YIII.— Letter of tlie TToii. Win. Sprague, U. S. Senator of R. I. 

f See Note IX. — Tlie Tliree Telegrams — " War News in other cities." 

X See Note X. — Ratio of soldiers to popvilation in twenty-four States. 

§ Ambrose Everett Burnside, Major-Geiieral, and Commander of the Army of 
the Potomac at the battle of Fredericksburg. 

II See Note XI. — Reminiscences of the Sons of Rhode Island in New York. 

^ Brigadier-General Isaac P. Rodman, of South Kingston, Rhode Island, fell 
mortally wounded while gallantly leading a Division against the enemy at the bat- 
tle of Antietam, Md. — Major-General George B. McClellan being in command at 
the time. 

** .lolin S. Slocum, Colonel 2d Rhode Island Regiment. — Woodbury's Cam- 
paign of the 1st Rliode Island Regiment, p. 151. ••The Fallen Brave," pp. 81-87. 

f f Vide Frank Moore's Rebellion Record. 



52 ANNALS OF KIIODE ISLAND, ETf. 

Tt is quite sufficient for licr glory, that the sons of Rhode 
Island in tliis generation, are faithful to the traditions of the 
State, and loyal in following the example of their fathers. 

We are here gathered together in the Halls of the Historical 
Society (^f NeAV York, on the anniversary of the landing of 
Roger Williams, and of the adoption, by Rhode Island, of the 
Constitution of the United States (at the end of the first year of 
our association), in State fellowship and in national lu'other- 
hood. We have been reviewing a past career of more than two 
centuries, and gathering up the great lesson of Liberty and Law, 
of Cdiarity and Truth, of Independence and Toleration, which, 
under God's Peovidence, has influenced the civilization of the 
world. 

While American citizens, true to the glorious old flag that 
synd)olizes and protects the Union as one nation, yet we are 
not aliens from our native land. We repudiate State Sover- 
cnjnfy, but we cling to State Fellowship. 

Yes ! Yonder is Rhode Island. Her streams are vocal with 
the rattling of the spindle ; her forges resound the clangor of 
the anvil ; her hills are crowned with the seats of learning ; her 
shores are lined with cottages and with villas; her beach is pop- 
ulous with citizens of all States, in search of health and recrea- 
tion ; her rocks are memorable as the resort of Philosophy and 
of Poetry; her coast is kissed by the warm touch of the (lulf 
Stream of the Atlantic; her breath is the genial air of heaven ; 
lier l)osom is adorned with the emerald grass and the golden 
corn; her cities are the emporium of industries ; her homes the 
happy saTictuarics of Love, and Liberty, and Contentment. 

'^i'lie Sons of Rhode Island look to her through pleasant mem- 
ories and with filial hearts. And the citizens of no State love 
each other more wisely and well, nor cling closer together, "for 
better ior worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health," 
than the native-born people of "The State of Rhode Island 

AND PliOVIDENCE PLANTATIONS." 



N OTE,S, 



NOTE I.— Page 7. 

LETTER OK JOHN MILTOX. 

The intimacy of Roger Williams with the historic men of liis gener.'i 
tioii, and the lofty liopes of the future grandeur of America, which tliebold 
thinkers of that age cherished, are set forth in the letter of John Milton to 
Count Palavicini de Saluces, the noble C4enoese envoy into England (ijuuted 
in "The Piedmontese Envoy," pp. 292-294). 

'■'' Mil iJear Count :■ — You remember my worthy friend Livingstone. * * 
We s]iokc of our mutual friend, Mr. Roger Williams, of Rhode Island, a 
colony in the New World, founded by that noble confessor of religious 
liberty, who, with many others, fled from tyranny, in the latter part of the 
reign of Charles I. We rejoiced in the zeal of that extraordinary man, and 
most enlightened legislator, who, after suffering persecution from his breth- 
ren, persevered, amidst incredible hardships and difficulties, in seeking a 
place of refuge for the sacred ark of conscience. Mr. Livingstone made refer- 
ence to a tract of land he had bought in that colony just at the beginning of 
the late conflict, thinking to transport himself thither, if the cause of the 
Parliament failed. The hand of mercy hath now saved him from the evil 
to come, by translating him into the kingdom of everlasting peace and joy. 
It might almost be called a translation, so sudden was the stroke which, in 
the midst of a green old age, snapped asunder in a moment the golden cord 
of life. He hath bequeathed to you this tract of land, that thus, as he ex- 
presseth himself, 'if you are an alien from your country, and your patri- 
mony, for conscience sake, you mayfiud an inheritance in a land of liberty, 
and provide an asylum there for your i)ersecute(l bi'ctliren in Euroi)e.' It 
is also his desire that you will adopt his name, in addition to your own. 

"I expect, my noble friend, that you will not hesitate to seek, in another 
hemisphere, the ])rime blessing of man — liberty ; since I fear your endeavor 
to serve this sacred cause, eitlier in France or Italia, would now, alas! be 
in vain. (Jo then, and join the bands of ])atriots and confessors beyond the 
broad Atlantic, to whom my spirit looks with hope, as the conservators of 
those immortal principles which have here been crushed in their bud. The 
deep-rooted prejudices and selfish ends of the old (Jovernmeiits of Europe, 
will, I fear, long retard the growth of these principles in this hemisphere ; 
Jjut^ ill the Colonies of America, the Allwise Governor oj' the world seems to 
have prcjjared a soil for their further deDelo2)nient, and, us Ihelieoe, their 



5-1 NOTKS. 

vlthnate frit/mph. In the visions icliieh often elieer my spirit, amidst tJie 
darkness of a precious external sense^ I behold these little Colonies expanded 
into great andprosjierous Jiej)uhlic>i^ ir/iere eacJi man shall possess the fullest 
measure of ciril freedom, and religion, no longer degraded and defiled hij her 
state bondage, will renew her mighty youth and soar in her pristine vigor and 
glory. In tliese days may the honored deseeiidants of Count de Salxices 
LiTiNGSToxE and of lioGEK WiLi.iAMs rejoice in the fruits of their ances- 
tors' principles and lahors. ***** 

^'^ If I cannot remain in safety in this land, where I am too deeply rooted 
eaxily to bear transplantation, I shall, j'/'rcl'ttnce. follow you to (he land of 
HOPE, whither you go. =^ :;:*** =■= 

■• Foriiet not, as you will never he forirotten hy, yonr devoted friend, 

'' Jonx MiLTOX." 



X(3TE II.— Page 19. 

THE LAST DAYS OF THE CHARTER LEGISLATURE, AND THE ORGAXIZATIOX 
OF THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. 

The General Assemldy, under the Charter, convened on ^fonday, ^fay 1, 
1^43, agreeahly to a vote of adjournment passed at the session in January. 
The session was oj^ened at three o'clock, P. M., hy prayer, by the Rev. Fran- 
cis Yinton. Rector of Trinity Church, Newport. The two Houses, in 
Grand Committee, then appointed a Special Committee to he present at 
and witness the organization of the government under the Constitntion 
adopted by the people of the State in Xovember, 1842 ; and it was resolved 
'• tluit said Ct)mmittee make report, in conformity to the provision of said 
Constitution, in order that this General Assembly may know when its func- 
tions shall have constitutionally passed into tlie hands of those who have 
been legally chosen by the people to receive aud exercise the same."' 

The Grand Committee then adjourned till tive o'clock next day, Tuesday, 
May 2, 1843. 

The General Assembly, under the Constitution ado])ted by the people in 
November, 1842, convened at the State House, in Xewj)ort, on the first 
Tuesday in May, 1843, at 11 o'clock, A. M. The members of the new Senate 
and House assembled in separate chambers for tlie puri)ose of organizing 
the government. His Excellency, Samuel Ward King, the last Governor 
under the Charter of 16G3, presided in the organization of the new Senate; 
and the senior member from the town of Xewport, the Hon. Henry Y. 
Cranston, and the clerks of the old House, acted as otficers of the new 
House, until it was organized. The Secretary of State, the Hon. Heni-y 
Bowen, administered the oath prescribed by the Constitution, to the Sena- 
tors, and afterwards to the memliersof the House of Representatives. Hon. 
Alfred Bosworth was the elected Speaker, and Thomas A. Jenckesand Joseidi 
S. Pitman, Clerks. The Governor and Senate then joined the House in 
Grand Committee, and the session of the General Assembly was then opened 
by prayer, by the Rev. Francis Yinton. 



NOTES. 55 

The votes for freiieral officers were then received, and a committee was 
appointed to connt them. 

Tlie (irand Committee then ajonrned till five o'clock in tlie afternoon of 
the same day. Tlie Grand Committee met at five o'clock, liis Excellencv, 
Governor King, in the chair. The committee appointed to count the votes 
reported, and it was therenpon RenoheJ, that James Fenner be declared 
elected Governor; Byron Dimon, Lieutenant-Governor; Ilenrv Bowen 
Secretary of State; Joseph M. Blake, Attorney-General; and Stephen Ca- 
hoone, General Treasurer. 

Governor King, who, during this august ceremony, was seated in tlie 
identical oaken chair in which, one hundred and eighty years before. (Gov- 
ernor Arnold received the Charter of Charles II., from Baxter's hands, re- 
signed his seat to Governor Fenner. Then the Speaker of the House, 
according to ancient usage, called out: ''Sherift". clear the way ; Sergeant, 
make proclamation that his Excellency, James Feimer, is elected Governor, 
Oai)tain-General, and Commander-in-chief of the State of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plant^itions for the year ensuing." The .sheriff, with his mace 
of office, cleared the way, and the town-sergeant of Newjjort followed to 
the balcony of the State House, and made the customary proclamation. 
After ])roclaiming the Governor, and the other general ofiicers, the sergeant 
added the i)ious deprecation of our forefather.s : " God save the State of 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.'' 

The shouts of the people and the roar of artillery followed the ])roc]ama- 
tion. A committee was a{)pointed to announce the organization of the 
new Government, to the General Assembly \mder the Charter. The two 
houses then separated. After the adjournment (on Tuesday) of the General 
Assembly under the Constitution, the General Assembly, under the Char- 
ter, convened in Grand Committee, Gov. King in the chair. The com- 
mittee appointed by the General Assembly, under the Constitution, ap- 
peared, and announced that the Government under the new Constitution 
was legally organized. 

The conuuittee api)ointed by the Charter Assembly, on Mcmdav, to wit- 
ness the organization of the new government, re])orted the fact, concludini.' 
their report with the declaration that "thci)ower of tlie government, as 
organized under the Charter, has ceased." Whereupon, the following reso- 
lution was adopted : 

"In General Assembly, Tuesday, May 2. 1843. 

'■'■ Ecsolrcd^ That the foregoing report be accepted, and that this General 
Assembly be and the same is hereby declared to be dissolved." 

The last General Assembly, under the old Charter, ■which had withstood 
the vicissitudes of two centuries, ceased to exist. 



50 



NOTES. 



Js^OTE III.— Page 20. 



SKICTCII OF TIIK LIFE OF KOGER WILLIAM.'?. 

• 

i;o(iKR "Willi A^Ls was a probyi' of Lord Coke. He was Lorn in Wales, bnt 
it is uncertain wlietlier in 1599 or ]()()(;. * Mrs. Sadlier, the (laughter of Sir 
Edward ("oke, in a note to one of Roger WilHains's letters addressed to her- 
self, wlierein he attenipts to ])roselyte her, says: "This Roger Williams, 
when he was a youth, would, in short hand, take sermons and speeches in 
the Star Chamher, and present them to my dear father. He, seeing so 
liojiet'iil a youth, took such a liking to him that he sent him to Sutton'.s 
Ilosi»ital; full little did he think that he Avould have jiroved such a rebel 
to (lod, the King, and his country. If ever he has the lace to return into 
liis native comitry, Tyburn may give him welcome." This MSS. letter of 
Roger Williams to Mrs. Sadlier is in the library of Trinity College, Cam- 
l>ridge. and is copied in Professor Elton's Life of Roger Williams, cliapter 
viii., with otlier corresi>ondenee between them. 

The records of Sutton's Hospital, now the '^ Charter Ilonse," show that 
Roger Williams was elected scholar June 20, ir)2I, and that he obtained 
an exhil)ition -Tuly 9, 1(;24. The records of Jesus College, Oxford, register 
his matriculation as follows: '• luxjcrieus Williams, Jilim Gul'iehni Wil- 
ludns^ de Cdiiirclfjdio, Pld). an. nut. 18, ent< red at Jesus {Mler/e Aj/iu'l oO, 
Ti24. After his graduation, he commenced the study of the law, under 
Sir Edward Coke. He was afterwards admitted to Holy Orders in the 
Cliurch of England, and served a parish in Lincolnshire. While there, 
he became ac(juainted with Cotton, Dudley, Hutchinson, and the leading- 
friends of the Puritan fathers. I' At length, turning Puritan, lie eudiarked, 
at Ihistdl, for America, and arrived in Boston, February 5, lfi:!I. 

He was baiiislied from Massachusetts, '• as a disturber of the peace, botli 
of the Church and Co)iiinnii wealth.'" in ir(;;.j. In the course of two or three 
years after the settlement of Providence in KioG, Williams eml)raced the 
views of the Bajjfists. '■ lUit,"' says Professor Elton, " there being no liap- 
tist )ninister in New England, Ezekiel llolliman, a pious and gifted indi- 
vidual, who afterwards l)ecame a minister, was selected to baptize Roger 
M illiam>, and Roger Williams then administered the ordinance to Mr. llol- 
liman and ten others."]; Such was the remarkable origin of the Baptist 
denomination in America. The Baptist meeting-house in Providence is 
uuicli venerated by the Baptist peo])le, as the mother of churches. Its first 
hell rang its hiudation. That old bell was made in London, and weighed 
2,515 jiouiids. Upon it was this motto, in rhyme : 

'•Fur frfcdiim of coiiscicnco tin.- tuwri was first iilunted; 

Porsiiasion, not t'on'o, was used by the iicnplc ; 
This Cliui-cli is tlic ol.lost. and lias not recantrd : 
Knjoyiiij; and iri'anlinf; ln-ll, ti.niiiU'. and .st>'ci>Ic.'"«5 

* Arnold's Hist, of E, ]., vol. i., pji. 47-r)0. 

t ■■ It jileasfd tlu' Lord to call tiH' for sonio tiiiU'. and with some jiersons. to jiraotise the Itelirew. 
the (heck, T.atin, Freneli, anil Dutch. The sei-retary of tlie council (Mr. Milton), for my Dutch 
I read liim. read me many more lani:ua>res."— Letter of IIoLrer Williams to .lohn Winthroi). — 
Kiuiirl, .V- :,U iJttilr of Ii'<></,'f Willldins. p. •.'G4. jilso " The Winthrop ra|iers," in .Mass. Hist. Coll . 

X KlI.uiV Lite of i:o,irer Williams, j.. I4.\ 

P Hai.'Ue"s llistoi-ical Di><onrse- Tlie Clmrcdi Trmsplanled. p. ^^■^. The last line is an allusion 
t(j the prcdiibilion of the \ise, by l>isseuters, in Knglaiid, of steeple or bell. 



NOTES. 57 

Roger Williams died in April, 1083, at liis residence in Providence, 
R. I. " He was buried," says Oallender, " with all the solemnity the Col- 
ony was able to show." " His remains were interred," says Elton, p. 149, 
"in a spot which he himself had selected on his own land, a short distance 
from the place where, fort\'-seven years before, he first set his foot in the 
wilderness." 

In a i)apcr read before tbe Rhode Island Historical Society, May IS, 1800, 
Mr. Zachariah Allen has detailed the interesting experiments to identify 
the grave of Roger Williams. It is curious that an old api)le-tree* had 
spread its roots around his body and absorbed his bones. lias that old ap- 
ple tree, in despoiling his phosphate*, exhausted likewise Rhode Island's 
pride, and sucked up Rhode Island memories? In 1771 the town of 
Providence voted " to erect over the grave of the founder of this town and 
colony a monument, "t Where is that monument ? Is it not discreditable 
to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, that echo an- 
swers MEANT ! Only " meant," but not done ! Is this Rhode Island con- 
duct? No ! Sons of Rhode Island, let it he done.\ 



IS'OTE IV.— Page 21. 
letter of william j. hoppix, esq., of xew york. 

Rev. I)r. F. Vintox : 

Mij Dear Sir : — The taking of the frigate Providence to sea on tlie 30th of 
April, 1778, was one of the most T)rilliant exploits of the war. She was 
lying in Providence, where she had been built nearly two years before, but 
as British ships of war were stationed in various i)arts of the bay, it was 
almost impossible to go out without being intercepted. It became neces- 
sary, however, to send important dispatches to France, probably in relation 
to the treaty with that nation, the news of which had just arrived lierel 
Captain Whipple determined to run the risk of the blockade, and, by bis 
energy and skill, succeeded in the undertaking. My grandfather, William 
Jones, afterwards Governor of Rhode Island from 1811 to 1817, com- 
manded the marines on board the Providence, and kept a journal of the 
cruise, which is in my possession. I send you extracts in relation to this 
exploit which have never been published : 

"On the oOth of April, 1778, at or near high water, at night, we got 
under way, with the wind at or near X. E., and very thick. Stood down 
the river, and on the middle ground, a little below Pawtuxet, struck the 
bar, where we lay perhaps three quarters of an hour until full tide. 

* Stfiihen IlaiKlall, Esq., of Rhode Island, a di'sceridant of Roger Williams, showed nicthc roots 
of this tree, which followed the form of the skeleton ; and tbe pocket compass of Roger Williams 
now belonging to Mrs. Harriot Brown, of Providence ; also a lineal descendant. 

+ See Letter of Theodore Foster to Williams Thayer, Jr., in Rhode Island ^«if7'»cff« of July 16, 
1S19, and Knowles' Memoir of Roger Williams, itp. 4:10-432. Also p. .3S'J, '-Si Monnmentuin 
quseris circunispiee." Judge Pitman, in his Ceiitennutl Discourse^ in 1S:3(), eloquently pleads for 
a monument for " the man who has given us a name and a place, but has no place for his name 
among us," p. 60. 

X A recent movement has been made, under the auspices of "The Roger Williams Monument 
Association of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," which was incorporated by 
act of the General Assembly of Rhode Island, in May. 1S60, and was duly organized on the 5th 
of June, in that year ; the Rev. Francis Way land, B. D., being its first President. 



ns 



NOTE^. 



Passed over the Lar and sliaped oiir (■ourse for Warwii/k Xeck, and liet'ore 
wo arrived near Mament I'dint, discovered a siij,-nal, by li.dits, from a ten- 
der to tlie shi|i T.ark, of tliirty-two ii'uns, \viii(di lay Just below Warwick 
Neck Point to receive ns. We kejit onr conrse, and very siK)n received a 
shot (|iei-ha|is of information, as it was at some distance). "We, of coni-se, 
■were soon at onr (piarters — this to effect, however, was not very liard, as 
we were, in men and boys, only one hundred and tifty-three in number, 
and, many of them at most but wcrcJiantalle. The Lark was a slii]) ot 
thirty-two a-uns to our twenty-eii^ht. Tier men were ])icked for the pur- 
pose — tliree hiindi-ed in nundier. Our men wore much inferior, a fi'roat 
proportion of them boys, and very few wore seamen. Wo, however, ko])t 
onr course, durini;- which the Lark, under way, with her foreto])sail aback, 
kept up ;i scattorinn- tire upon us until nearly alonu'sido, when slie a-avo us 
i> broadside. This civility obli,n'ed us to answer, and it was done to effect. 
By this time, the i)assai2:o beinij narrow, we came close in contact, whicdi 
enabled us to hear the g:veatest confusion of swearing; etc., I ever heard; 
they, however, soon recovered, and gave us a second liroadside within talk- 
ing distance, whicdi was promjitly returned; and she, the Lark, was so cut 
to i)ieces, and with a, number of killed .and wounded men, as (d.)liged her to 
round to, all standing I AVhat a cruel disappointment to a commander who 
had solicited the station f<> fair the relu^l friijnfe intu Xeirjiort. It afterwards 
ajjpoarod that her tender fared but little better, as she sunk the next day. 
We proceeded a, little farther, when we wore saluted with a broadside from 
the frigate Hound, and two liroadsides were exchanged, but her com- 
mandei', not pleased with Yankee civility, let us alone, and we jiassed 
on. it since apjieared the Lark had eighteen poor fellows Icilled and 
wounded, and was nnndi damaged in sails, rigging, and spars; the Hound 
not (piiteso niucli so; but. through theever-to-be-adored goodness of Heaven, 
we had not a man wounded, and but little damage to the ship. AVe stood 
on. ]iassed the light-house, the weather extivmely tliitdc. In the morning, 
about daylight, and with, 1 think, eleven souls on deck (for, as the weather 
was i-ougli, m.any of our new sailors were sea-sick, poor creatures), Ave saw a 
sail under o\ir lee bow, close or lu/ar by. She, it appeared, was a sixty- 
foiu' gun shij), stationed near Point -ludith to take (diarge of us, if we shoidd 
escape the two frigates before mentioned — (noble fellows!). We soon had 
all hands on de(d<, aiul made all sail ; and the enemy was (piite as expedi- 
tious; but we had the wind of her. Not a, shot was exchanged, each 
crowding all sail. It soon a]>peared we g.ained from her, and by eleven 
o'clock, A. M., we ran her hull down; and not a little pleased were we, he 
assui'ed."' 

'I"he i'rovideiice proceeded on her voy.age witlmut further dithculty, and 
on the ;;otli May, 1 T78, arrived at Paimbo'uf, near Nantes, in France, and 
Cajitain Whipple immediately sent Captain dones with the dispatches to 
Dr. l-'ranklin, and the other American Comnussioners, in Paris. 

1 think the above account of the exploit of Ca])taiii Whip[)le will he 
interesting, as it occnrre(l in u\w own waters, and no jiarticular description 
of it whatever has ai)peared, so tar as I can learn, in print. 
Truly yours, 

WlI.l.IAM J. IIOJTIX. 

87'^ iJroadwav, /««r2o, 18G3. 



NOTES. 59 

NOTE v.— Page iP,. 

LETTER OF THE HON. IIENUY I!. AXTIIONY. 

riioviDENCE, (/rfohrr 12, 18G3. 
My Dear Sir : — I have yours of the 9th, reinhidiiig me of my promise to 
re])eat to you the remark that General Scott made in my hearing- about the 
late Major John 11. Vinton. It was at the table of the lion. Henry S. San- 
ford, now our minister at Brussels, that the eonversation took place, during 
the last session of the Thirty-sixth Congress. General Scott was giving 
some account of the siege of Vera Cruz; and in the course of it, said: 
"John K. Vinton was the most accom])lished man in the American Army." 
I expressed my ])leasure at the remark, and said that I had enjoyed the 
lionor of Major "N'inton's friendship; and the General repeated it in his pe- 
culiarly emphati*! style. He also gave an interesting account of the death 
and burial of Major Vinton. 

1 think 1 mentioned to you my doubt about Dr. Vinton's ])ig story. The 
pig part of it is true, but not the war part. War was declared in the 
Senate by a considerable majority. There may ha\e 1)een some i)relim- 
inary question decided by one majority, but I do not remember what it 
was. (Jeneral Ilickey, the i)rincij)al clerk of the Senate, could settle the 
question. 

I do not remi-mber tliat Dr. A'iuton, in his learned and delightful dis- 
course, included Jemima Wilkinson among the characters of Khode Island. 
\'ery truly yours, 

Henry B. Anthony. 
Henry T. Drowne, Esq., New York. 



NOTE VI.— Page 44. 

letter of GEORGE C. ARNOLD, ESQ. 

Providence. Majj 28, 1863. 

I)<^ar Sir : — I am in receipt of yours of yesterday. James Rhodes, of 
Providence, in 1811, or about that time, owned a farm in Cranston, a few 
rods over the city line, and lived there during the summer mouths. On 
a liot day in July, he discovered a pig in his " clover meadow." Hecalle<l 
his son and my brother (Mr. William U. Arnold, now of Warwick), who, 
Avith a dog, after a good run, drove the pig into the barn-yard, where he 
soon after died with over heat. 

Mr. Perry, the cnvner of the pig, demanded damages. Rliodes refused. 
Perry commenced a suit. James Purrill, his attorney, said many hard 
things against Rhodes, and finally defeated him. Rhodes had to pay dam- 
ages, costs, etc. 

Judge Mathewson, of Scituate, a member of the General Assembly for 
many years, a true and intimate friend of Rhodes, made it his home thei-e 
when in the city. He was, and had been for years, a leading man in the 
Fcederal party in the State, and had always voted for Jhu'rill. But James 



CO NOTES. 

Iiliodes told "Nfathewson not, on any account, to vote for Bnrrill, if he had 
any desire to i)reserve their friendsliip. Mathewson made no |)roniise ; hut, 
when the vote was ])ut, voted for Jeremiah B. Howell. This made a tie 
vote, when the ehairinan, Governor James Fenner, voted for llowell, who 
was, accordiiif^ly, elected Senator to ('on;;-ress. 

In Washinij:ti)n, Jeremiah B. llowell voted for war with Enirland, which 
made a tie vote ; and the chairman decided for war with Eniiland. 

This is the story, as I always understood it. ^Vt any rate, if James Bur- 
rill had received Mathewson's vote he would have been elected, and there 
would not have l)een a tie vote. Uurrill would have voted for peace, hut 
llowell voted for war. And had it not been for the piii', ^fathewson would 
Lave voted, of course, for Burrill. Yours truly, 

George 0. Arnold. 

To IIexrv T. Deowxe, New York. 



NOTE VII.— Page 50. 

BISHOP burgess' I'oEM 0\ I'JIODE ISLAND, KV ISi'l. 

O irallant land of l)osoms true, 

Still bear that staiidess shield! 
That anchor clnnii' the tem])est through ; 

That hope, untaught to yield! 
Fair city, '"all thy banners wave," 

And high thy trumpet sound ! 
The name thy righteous father gave. 

Still guards thee round and round. 

No thirst for war's wild joy was thine, 

iSTor flashed one hireling sword: 
Forth, for their own dear household slirine, 

The patriot yeomen jjoured ; 
There, rank to rank, like brethren stood, 

One soul, and step, and hand; 
And crushed the stranger's robber-brood, 

And kept their father's land. 

High hung the rusting sc-ythe awhile. 

And ceased the spindle's roar, 
The boat rocked idly l)y the isle. 

And on tlie ocean shore; 
The belted burgher ])aced his street; 

Tlie seaman wheeled his gun ; 
Steel gleamed along the ruler's seat. 

And study's task was done! 

Old Xarragansctt rang with arms. 

And rang the silver bay, 
And that sweet siiore wliose girdled charuLS 

Were Philip's ancient sway ; 



NOTES. 61 

And our old islaiurs lialoyoii scoiio 

The black artillei-y siMit ; 
And answered, from the home of Greene, 

The men of dauntless Kent ! 

Can freedom's truth endure tlie shock 

That comes in freedom's name? 
Khode Island, like a Si)artan rock, 

Upheld her country's fame ! 
The land that tii-st threw wide its gates, 

And gave the exile rest, 
First arms to save the strength of States, 

And guards ber freedom best. 

Oh, ever thus, dear land of ours, 

Be nurse of steadfast men ! 
So firmer far than hills and towers 

Or rocky pass and glen ! 
For peace alone, to dare the fight ; 

The soldier for the laws; 
Thine anchor fast in heavenly might; 

Thy hope, an holy cause ! 

Providence Journal, July 15, 1842. 



NOTE VIII.— Page 51. 

LETTER OF HI.S EXCELLEXCY, WILLIAM SI'KA(;rE, LATE GOVEKXOK, BUT JfOW 
UNITED STATES SENATOK, OF KIIODE ISLAND. 

Providence, June 6, 1802. 

Geokge "William Curtis, Es(1., Corresponding Secretary^ Asmciation Sons 
Rhode Island, Xew York. 

My Dear Sir: — I duly received your kind favor 29th ult., informing me 
that at the first meeting of the Executive Committee of your Association I 
was elected an Honorary Member. 

I am highly gratified with this compliment. Will you please present to 
the Committee my profound acknowledgments. 

Tlie delay in answering your note was in consequence of my absence 
from Rhode Island with two regiments of Infantry and one battery of Light 
Artillery, collected together directly from the people at one day's notice. 

Having no efficient State organization to draw from, or to embarrass 
prompt action, our people, unaided and by themselves, liave learned the 
sph'it and duties of the soldier. So numerous a response at so short notice 
from so limited a number of people, is, ui my oi)inion, unprecedented in 
the history of any country, they having at the same time double their (juota 
in the national service. 

This, you will perceive, is another contribution of Khode Island's loyalty 
and patriotism in aid of a government menaced by men who would destroy 
all liberty — all law, country and jjcople, to establish a bastard empire. 

God preserve us from such a curse, is the constant i)rayer of your obliged 
fellow-countryman, and obedient servant, 

^V^I.I.1AM Si'RAGUE. 



G2 



NOTES. 
NOTE IX.— rA(u.:51. 



TlIK TIIHEK TKI.EGRAMS, FROM THE XKW YOiriv COMMERCIAL ADVKIJTISER, 
SIIOWl.N'i; THE STATE OF THE I'lltl.K-' MINI) IX THE SEVERAL CITIES, IN 
TnCl.Al ION TO THE OUTBREAK OK THE I'RESEXT CIVIL UEHELLIOX. 

AVAR NEWS IN OTHER CITIES. 

Washixoton, Saturday, April lo, isfil. 

Tlic war news is received here witli dee]) feelings of regret. There is no 
excitement, but the prospects of the future create a general feeling of 
depression. 

Providence, R. I., Saturday, April 13, ISfil. 

dovernor Sprague has tendered to the (lovei-ninent the services of tlie 
Marine Artillery,* and one thousand infantry, and otters to accompany 
them himself 

Boston, Saturday, April 13, iMil. 

The warnews from Charleston creates a profound sensation in this city, 
and throughout the State. The general sentiment is, that the Federal 
(ioverument is right, and shall he sustained. 

* Uattcry of Lii,'lit. Ai'tilliM-y. " This was Mie first, l>atU'ry of filli'il (Miinon in the service of tlie 
Uiiitcil Sliites, eitliei- viiliuiteei- oi- ivguhu-."— Wooiiuruv's ••Cdnj/iiiijii <if fhe First lihdih 
Jul, mil negimeiit;' \k 17:!, itoie. 



NOTE X.— Page 51. 
ratio of soli)IEi;s to toi'ilation. 

The following tahle shows the ratio of the iiumher of soldiers turnished 
thus far by each State, to the population of tlie State. In Ivansa.s, it would 
appear that one fourth of the entire male poi)ulation has gone to tiie war. 
The States are arranged in the order of their ratio : 



A. i). 1 KG 1-1 si;:!. 

Kansas 1 to 7.'>0 \ Massachusetts 1 

Jthode island 1 to 11.10 ' New Y(M-k 1 

illinois . 1 to 12. (Jo | New Hampshire 1 

liiiliana 1 to 13.15 1 Wisconsin 1 

Ohio 1 to 13.15 i Kentucky 1 

Jowa 1 to 13.511 

Pennsylvania 1 to l-l.S-l- 

Mimiesota 1 to 14.t)5 

Michigan I to 15.(11 

Connecticut 1 to 1(>.12 

\'ermont 1 to 1(5.58 

Western Virginia 1 to 1G.75 



Maine 1 

New Jersey 1 

Delaware 1 

Missouri 1 

Oregon 1 

California 1 

Maryland 1 



to 17.01) 
to 17.53 
to 17.s() 
to 18.23 
to 20.21J 
to 20.24 
to 22.40 
to 21.44 
to 31.02 
to 51.5() 
to 54.35 
to 03.70 



NOTES. 63 

NOTE XI.— Pa(je 51. 

I!KM1MS( EXCES OF T(IE SONS OF KllODE ISLAND IN NEW YOKK. 

Tlie First Rhode Island Regiment, coniinanded by Col. .Vnihroso E. Runi- 
side, and uoconipanied by Governor Spragueand statt", arrived at New York, 
en route for the defence of Washington, in the steamer p]mpire State, on 
Sniiday morning, April 21st, ISGl. They were visited during the day by 
many of the sons of Rhode Island residing in the city and vicinity; and 
among the tirst was the Rev. Dr. Francis Vinton, of Trinity Church, New 
York, whose friendly greetings and j)atriotic counsels were warn)ly received 
by otticers and men. As the Regiment left the pier, at the foot of Canal 
street, North liiver, late in the afternoon, on board the transport Coat/a- 
coalcos, patriotic speeches were made by the Governor and others, as also 
enthusia-stic cheers exchanged between the sons of Rhode Island, on board 
and on shore. 

Another incident afterwards, on March '29th, l(Sr)2, called together the 
sons of Khode Island in New York, when the bodies of some of her lament- 
ed dead — the gallant Si.oouM, Bali.ou, and Towek, who fell in the tirst bat- 
tle of I)ull Run — were borne through the city. This led to the organiza- 
tion of The Sons of Kiioue Island as a ])ermanent association. On the 
day of the ])ublic obsequies, a meeting was held at the Astor IIou.se, and a 
committee appointed, consisting of John H. Ormsbee, Benjamin G.Arnold, 
Charles Congdon, Henry Jacobs, Henry T. Drovvne, Dr. Francis Vinton, 
and Randall H. (xreene, to draft the Constitution, which was adoi)ted May 
2.'5d, 18(52. 

The Association at present numbers upwards of one hundred resident 
Tthode Islanders, and has enrolled as its Honorary Members 

William Sprague. Geokge Banckoft, 

Samuel G. Aknold, W^illiam R. Staples, 

Geouge H. Calvekt, John Russell IJakilett, 

IIknky B. Anthony, Usiier Parsons. 




.J^ 






A. imYJNIE 



OF 



RHODE ISLAND AND THE TIMES 



PRONOUNCED BEFORE 



THE SONS OF RHODE ISLAND IN NEW YORK, 



AT THEIR FIRST ANNIVERSARY, 



HELD IN THE 



Hall of the K" e w Yorlc Historical Society, 



May 29, 18G3, 



BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 



r>ELrv'Ei;ED, also. 

In Brooklyii, N. T., before the Long Island Historical Society, June 11, 18G:!. 
To the fitizcns of Providence, II. I., in Roger Williams' Hall, June '26, 18G3. 
To the Redwood Library Association, Newport, R. I., in Aquidueck Ilall, June 
30, 1SG3,. 



TI-IE liHYME. 



Sons of Ehode Island ! liow could I refuse 
At your command to woo the unwilling Muse? 
To me unwilling, for she knows that I 
To climb Parnassus' steep no longer try ; 
That my accounts with Helicon are closed, 
And I for many a year have only prosed. 



Yet had I said what dear Rhode Island knows, 
Seed sown on barren places never grows ; 
If I had sto]Dped to doubt, delay, demur, 
You would have said, "//r \v no Rhode Islander." 
Therefore, if you had bade me think in Greek, 
Or plaiit our flag on Dhawalagiri's peak ; 
To sail tlirough Symmes's hole, or straightway lay 
An undisputed railroad in Broadway ; 
If you had ordered me to keep gold steady, 
Or for this night to have an epic ready ; 
To think Rhode Island's record could be straighter, 
Or that Vallandigham is not a traitor; 
Or to call hliii a Union man, indeed, 
Who wished the Empire City to secede ; 
A kind of Unionist by small Brooks bred, 
A ^Vood-en body and a copper-liead ; 



f 



0^ A RHYME OF KIIODK ISI-AND 

If you li;i(l told ino tliat I must believe 

The London Ti/ncs- would o'er our ruin grieve ; 

Wliose corresjiondent week'ly writes to sa_y, 

" This sick man won't sui'vive another day," 

And, winking- to John Bull, keeps gayl_y humming, 

" There's a good time coming, John, a good time coming ;" 

Or, if still harder tasks 3'our will requires, 

Tell ni(! to find by yonder bright camp-fires 

One son of Greene who in the crashing fray 

Knows how to yield or how to run away ; 

Or one of Hopkins' brothers on the sea 

Where heart does not compel the victory. 

Tell me from out my heart to raze each name 

That consecrates anew Rhode Island's fiime. 

Or lind upon the globe another State 

In soil so little and in soul so great; 

Or in ;i wilder fit of pure caprice. 

Should some one sigh at any price for peace, 

And ask rae for peace arguments in song 

As good as Orierson's or half as long, 

Or likely to convert our rebel kith 

Like those that General Gillmore argues with, 

Or l)id me name, if such a man they want, 

A better peace man than Ulysses Grant, 

Who says with emphasis that never ceases 

If you want })eace then knock your foe in pieces. — 

However ho})cless any task might be 

That Narragansett wisdom laid on me, 

This, though despairing, should be my reply, 

"Sons (.)f Ehode Island, I, at least, will try." 



But no such serious duty falls on me. 
You only ask a sound of minstrelsy ; 
A little singing after sober sense; 
A little jingling after clo(pience. 



AND THE TIMES. 69 

Indeed, the duty jon invite me to 

Is what all honest men would gladly do : 

For if his hands were large as his desire, 

Who would not strike — yes, and knock down, the lyre. 

I wish all lyres were struck, — then should not we 

The sport of special correspondents be ; 

Nor they alone, — for though we've heard it said 

Baron Munchausen long ago was dead, 

"Who does not know, — alas, 'tis true, 'tis jjity. 

He edits every paper in the city. 



Do you upl^raid me that my idle rhymes 
Jar on the solemn measure of the times ? 
Do you reprove the wanton mind that strays 
From the continuous dirges of these days? 
Nay, friends and l)rothers, at this moment, we 
Think the same thoughts and the same visions see. 
Admonished by life's fluctuating scene 
Of all he is and all he might have been, — 
Man toiling upward on the dizzy track, 
Still looks regretful or remorseful back, 
Paces old paths, remembering vows that I'olled 
In burning words from lips forever cold, — 
Bows his sad head where once he bowed the knee, 
And kissed the cheek that no more kissed shall be. 
So the sad traveller climbing from the plain, 
Turns from the hill and sees his home again, 
And sighs to know that, that sweet prospect o'er, 
The boundless world is but a foreio-n shore. 



Thus, dear Rhode Island, on thy shrine to-day 
Thy children pausing hang this votive lay; 
No other song upon their lips shall be, 
For it is music to remember thee. 



70 A KTIYME OF RHODE ISLAND 

Thougli far our feet have wandered since they plaj^ed 

Beneath the trees tliat thy green meadows shade, — 

Though many a wave has wet our lips since lirst 

At Roger Williams" spring we quenched our thirst, — 

Thougli SVC have seen with foscinated e_ye, 

The Syrian shore and the Italian sky, — 

Yet such the magic that in memory dwells, 

Such the soft hue that o'er the distance swells, 

That not in Asian vallej^s could we view 

A fairer landscape than our childhood knew; 

Nor in the deep Sorrento heaven find 

A tenderer beauty than we left behind. 

Though we huvc stood by classic Tiber's side, 

And watched the darkly rolling Danube glide,-— 

Or that benignant Bacclius, Father Rhine, 

Reel seaward garlanded with endless vine, — 

Or farther, broader, grander, the bright smile 

On Africa's dark flice of her calm Nile, — 

Yet dearer to ouv hearts the smiles that play 

C)n thy bright waters, Narragansett Bay ! 



Nor these alone, but eager memory pours 
Poetic light on other streams and shores, 
Thermopyhe, heroic Afai^athon, 
Fields where the prizes of the world were won. 
And wandering beneath the ha])py sky 
Where art trivnnphant piles its trophies high, 
In that })ure clime wlierc^, ruined though it be, 
The Parthenon still smiles across the sea; 
And every moon the traveller looks u})on 
Herself Dian wakes him Endymion, — 
From the rich dust of the ^gean shore. 
Waked by our longing, Greece revived once more 
Mercurial France we saw, whose rivers fl(_)w 
Through sunny vineyards and by old chateaux. 



AND THE TIMES. 71 

Vainest of nations ! yet its greatest joy 
Not its own child, but an Italian boy ; 
Home of the Graces, who, with pouting mouth, 
Jeered at the Muses who preferred the South. 
Shrewdest of Savans ! most decorous Sinner, 
Ready for your dissection or your dinner,— 
With witty lip and calculating heart, 
Academy of sciences and art 
But vain its colleges and wit and schools J 
Once more in France a silent despot rules. 
The nobler France, with melancholy eyes, 
Sees the strange pageant played beneath the skies, 
Sees, as in some grotesquest fever dream, 
A wild adventurer seizing power supreme, 
And murdering Frenchmen till liis terrors cease. 
Then gravely dubbing his frail empire " peace ;" 
While the gay cock that froze in Russian snow, 
Burns his clipped wings in torrid Mexico, 
And nobler France dishonored hangs its head, 
Its master perjured, and its heroes fled. 



And we have crcvsscd to that delightful isle 
Where dwells a gentle people without guile. 
Modest and mild, unselfish and polite, 
A race in whom all noble traits unite : 
A frugal people doing good by stealthy 
Disdaining empire and despising wealth ; 
The Dollar worship gives them huge oftencc, 
For all their piety is pounds and pence. 

They chide the wars of others, for they know 
No civil broils their virtuous annals show. 
They never fought for conquest or for gain. 
Their sternest song is a bucolic strain. 
They never rammed with supercilious cant 
Dovfn China's throat what China did not want. 



A RHYME OF RHODE ISLAND 

From 1)l;i sting cannon's moutli tliej never blew 
The hopeless, helpless, ignorant Hindoo, — 
Nor on the bleak Crimean hills engaged 
In tlie most needless war men ever waged. 

Hail, great John Bull ! warm, generous, sincere I 
Pious and just, to all the virtues dear! 
All nations love you, dohn, 'tis sweet to see, 
Tliat in their view of you tliey all agree, — 
But their affection to express most fully. 
Bull is too cold, and so they call you bully ! 
Your neighbors love you! from the earliest day, 
France doated on her dear "god-dam Anglais." 
Erin, whose years in prosperous progress glide, 
Sits fat, content, and happy at youi* side, 
While shaggy Russia sucks her ursine paws, 
And watchinsf her dear friend, unsheathes her claws. 



Well, moral John, since your loud mouth declares 
That you are corn and other peo}tle tares, — 
Since j^ou delight your portly form to draw 
As champion of Liberty and Law, 
Faithful to friends, to foes a fearful fellow, — 
Cease, for a moment, your tremendous bellow. 
And tell us why, when trampling on the law, 
A band of desperate men their weapons draw. 
Pleading no cause but that it suits them well 
To turn tlieir country into vei-y hell, 
That they may have the unrestricted pleasure 
Of selling men and babies at their leisure, — ■ 
Contending that the Constitution meant 
They might whip women to their hearts' content, 
And everywhere this must be guaranteed, 
And for all time, or else they would secede, 
AVliilc this God-given privilege to gain 
TlicyM ))i]e the land with heaps of brothers slain, — • 



AND THE TIMES. 73 

Why at that moment, friend of freedom, why 
To Liberty one word did you deny ? 
Champion of justice, wh}^ did you decide, 
To take the wretched women-whippers' side ? 
And when a friend was struggling with both hands 
Against the onset of assassin bands, 
Why did you snivel that in your opinion. 
Your friend was lighting only for dominion, — 
Sharpen j'our nails, and cry, " though I may rue it, 
I'll scratch his back, and now's the time to do it, — " 
Why did you sneer so sourly that yon knew 
We'd undertaken what we could not do ? 
And smile contemptuous, as you shook your head, 
*' Kicking's no use, for you're as good as dead ?" 
Had mountains swelled or oceans rolled between, 
If separating deserts there had been, 
If any natural barrier indeed. 
We might have said, " in God's name do secede." 
It could not be, no force the State can sever, 
God made us one, God keeps us one forever ; 
Union's an instinct, John, and so you see 
Disunion cannot, will not, shall not be ! 



Beloved Bull, you tossed j^our angry horn 
With such a lofty roar of moral scorn. 
We knew you meant some special mischief, and 
We saw you stretching out a stealthy hand 
To seize, and burn, and ravage eagerly, 
A friendly nation's helpless ships at sea. 
Declaring, as you loosed your pirates on her, 
That British law could not save British honor. 
Once in our Senate, John, a stealth}^ blow 
From a dull ruffian laid a good man low. 
The country shuddered ; every man from far 
Scented the hideous breath of civil war. — 



74 A RHYME OF RHODE ISLAND 

The deed Wcas fearful, and yet History 
A sadder sight in your record will see ; 
For ever in yovu- Parliament there stands 
A British Senator who says, " these hands, 
British Lawgivers, bi'oke and break your laws," 
And seats himself 'mid England's loud applause. 



Why is all tliis ; Beloved of nations, why ? 
Though WE might answer, what is yoai' reply? 
Why, friend of law, do you its soldiers slander ? 
Why, Freedom's Champion, are you slaver3^'s pander? 
At least be manly. Since we know why, — speak 1 
If you are false, why also be a sneak ? 
Could you for once w^ith your line moral air. 
Could you for once be honest, frank, and fair ? 
John Toodles Bull ! we know your ancient whine — 
" I reelij can't ; it isn't in my line." 



But, better England ! our indignant rhymes 
Do not confound you witli the London Tiines^ 
England of Bright and Cobden, Cairnes and Mill, 
You are the England of John Milton still. 
Sir Roundell Palmer cpiibbles ; Palmerston 
Sneers at an ally in his smartest tone, 
The little Lords make merry at our name. 
And mark with rebel badges their own shame. 
Their loud ap[)lauses pirate bands inspire, 
That waste the sea and light their course with lire. 
But, nobler Britons ! still to justice true. 
From gross and dull John Bull, we turn to you. 
O, toiling hands ! 0, sympatlietic hearts ! 
Our love from you no rolling ocean jxarts, 
Tlirough every cloud the mighty truth you see, 
We light the battle of your Liberty. 



AND THE TIMES. 75 

When in our fields the holj war shall cease, 
And from its sacred blood spring perfect peace, 
No tyranny can then hope to endure, 
No rank or privilege will be secure. 
Then the full splendor of that flag unfurled, 
Will light with all its meaning all the world ; 
The meteor flag of caste will droop and fall, 
God and the people will be all in all. 



These have we seen, and yet, Rhode Island, we 
Would not exchange the fairest land for thee. 
Thy vines ai'e few ; thy Alps are very low ; 
In thy judicious soil no almonds grow; 
On thy green shores when grateful olives shine, 
They're wisely pickled in a foreign brine ; 
If " Torno's cliff and Pambamarca's side'' 
Thy gentle undulations should deride, 
Philip's Mount Hope thou bast for solace still, 
And thou hast what is left of old Smith's Hill. 
If Marathon, Marengo, Waterloo, 
Should ask thy famed historic fields to view, 
Show them, Rhode Island, with a high disdain, 
Thy Dexter training-ground, and Seekonk plain. 
If proud cathedrals in their Gothic style, 
Pronounce Rhode Island architecture vile. 
Calmly reply, '' 'tis true we have no great house. 
But we've a Baptist Cliurch, a Newport State house.'^ 
And when some Frenchman, pert and debonnaire, 
Asks to inspect Rhode Islandsbill of fare, 
Since all his pride upon a frog's legs leans, 
Show him a dish of John B. Chace's beans. 
The case of one who boasts of British prog 
Treat with a firm, but delicate tautog, 
And if his boasting louder grows, and louder. 
Stop his broad mouth with green corn and a chowder. 



76 A EIIYMK OF RHODE ISLAND 

Ehode Island geese ! — kind friends, it is not you, 
Nor I, who need their praises to pursue ; — 
Nor will I hint that any listener here 
Was e'er laid out on Carpenter's spruce beer. 



We are thy sons, Rhode Island, and we know 
Why all thy children love their mother so ; 
Thy form is slight, but we remember well 
The tale thy ancient gossips love to tell, — 
How when a statesman, to deride thy size, 
Asked a Rhode Island girl, with laughing eyes, 
How many square feet in the State might be, — 
Her ready lips responded instantly : 
" In our beloved Rhode Island, sir," she said — 
" Not by the foot we measure, but the head."' 



Or better still, a story of the day, 
IIow when, last year, our troops near Yorktown lay, 
A young Rhode Island picket, on the hill, 
Heard from the enemy the summons shrill, 
'' And to what regiment do you belong ?" — 
Promptly his answer echoed clear and strong, 
" The hundred fourth Rhode Island," — for he knew 
That what he said was of her S])irit true ; 
The little mother, by instinctive art. 
Not by the head lie measured, but the heart. 



And still again ; of late the lal-jorers found 
Near Newport an old Indian burial ground. 
Uninjured in the grave the relics lay, 
The bodies buried in the white man's way ; 
But, wondering, the explorers saw in spots. 
Some heads were cased in solid copper pots. 



AND THE TIMKS. TT 

'Tis strange that liurnan beings any wliere, 

For their hist night-caps copper pots shoukl wear ; 

That they, as 'twere, in their deep graves should be 

So copper bound for all eternity : — 

But stranger, that live men should be such sots 

As to plunge their heads into copper pots — 

Seeing not, hearing not ; but butting blind 

At every thing they find or think they find, 

Trying to prove to every man and woman, 

That copper heads are better than the liuman. 

These Newport relics show us what we knew, 

Rliode Island to the human head is true ; 

And the last copperhead her soil below 

She buried deep, two hundred years ago. 



native State ! thy praises while we sing, 
Through our light song the shouts of battle ring ; 
On our bowed hearts the blows of battle fall, — 
And in each blow we hear our country call, 
So while on thee our lavish praise we pour, 
We love thee much, — but love our country more. 
All that we are and have, how well we know. 
Our native land ! to thee thy children owe. 
And since each State, as prospering it stands, 
Draws its importance from thy fostering hands ; 
Since in the nation's doubtful, threatening hour, 
There is but one supreme, one sovereign power ; 
This the chief glory of our State shall be, 
Rhode Island taught us how to lionor thee. 
For when assassins, skulking on thy track. 
Fawned in thy face, and stabl)ed thee in the back. 
While all thy children heard the startling cry, 
Rhode Island answered first : " Lo ! here am I." 
For, by her founder's hand, tlie little State 
To every liberty was dedicate ; 



A RHYME OF RHODE ISLAND 

And in the ardent van of Imman rig-hts 

Old Roger Williams naturally lights. 

Through the loud tempest of the mighty strife, 

Where, undismayed, the country strikes for life, 

I hear his joyous summons pealing clear 

Across the stormy field, "What cheer! What cheer?" 

And from each quarter echoing through the sky 

Perry's proud music gives the glad reply, — 

"The fight is sharp, but the foe plainly cowers, 

We've met the enemy and they are oursy 



We've met the enemy, but on the field 
Lie the brave boys who' died, but could not yield. 
Rhode Island boys ! you only marcli before. 
Your tents are pitched upon the heavenly shore ; 
And never eartlily storm or battle rain 
On your young sacred heads shall beat again. 
Beloved and blessed ! the unextinguished fire 
That warmed your hearts, our hearts shall still inspire : 
Your victory won,, your perfect peace secure, 
Your glory with your country's shall endure. 

And brothers, you who in the fight still stand, 
Battling for liberty and native land, 
While down yO'Ur ranks peals Perry's bugle note, 
Above your heads two sacred banners float : 
On one the anchor, fiirm 'mid hissing seas,'^ 
Holds by the centre till the storm shall cease — 
A flag above it hangs, the colors of the Mother 
Our fathers knew, and we will know no other. 
Our best beloved, our pi'ide of song and story, 
God save the stars and stripes, our common glory ! 
Lift up your eyes, Rhode Lsland soldiers, see ! 
Our State says " Hope," our country " Liberty !" 

* The device upon the flag of the State of Rhode Island is an anchor, with 
the inscription " Hope." 



AND THE TIMES. 79 



At last, at last, each glowing star, 
In that pure field of heavenly blue, 

On every people shining far, 

Burns, to its utmost promise true, 

Hopes in our fathers' hearts that stirred. 
Justice, the seal of peace, long scorned, 

O perfect peace ! too long deferred, 
At last, at last, your day has dawned. 

Your day has dawned, but many an hour 
Of storm and cloud, of doubt and tears, 

Across the eternal sky must lower, 
Before the glorious noon appears. 



And not for us that noontide glow, 
For us the strife and toil shall be, 

But welcome toil, for now we know, 
Our children shall that glory see. 



At last, at last ! O, stars aud stripes. 

Touched in your birth by Freedom's flame 1 
Your purifying lightning wipes 

Out from our history its shame. 



Stand to your faith, America ! 

Sad Europe, listen to our call! 
Up to your manhood, Africa ! 

That u'racious flag floats over all. 



^ 



80 



A RHYME OF RnODE ISLAND AND THE TIMES. 



And when tlie liour seems dark with doom, 
Our sacred banner lifted higher, 

Shall flash away the gathering gloom 
With inextinguishable fire. 

Pure as its white the future see ! 
Britrht as its red is now the slcv ! 

O 'J 

Fixed as its stars the faith shall be, 
That nerves our hands to do or die. 




rro-i 



